Christmas trees have been spotted abandoned on streets in Cornwall after a planned service to collect them was hit by staff being off sick with covid.

Cornwall Council had issued messages before Christmas advising that anyone with an unwanted real Christmas tree should leave it out with their usual rubbish in the week of January 10th for it to be collected.

Whilst many were collected last week there were several parts of Cornwall where they have been left in the street.

People waiting for their trees to be collected took to social media to try and find out what was happening and what they should do with their trees.

On Twitter, Rebecca Wills said: "No trees collected in Helston. Some young people have been dragging the uncollected trees through the streets, and *allegedly* throwing them at the windows of uninhabited shops!"

One other person stated: "Loads around here in Falmouth, all over the pavements…mind you they didn't take our recycling either.."

Cornwall councillor Rob Nolan said on Twitter that he had been trying to help people who had not had their trees collected. He said: "Seems to have been a change of plan and they weren't collected with black bag waste. Crews were out on Saturday, but there are still lots left."

In a statement Cornwall Council said: "We want to thank anyone who has not yet had their Christmas tree collected for their patience. Covid absences affected plans to collect Christmas trees last week, but we have collected over 10,000 trees. The focus was on ensuring that the main rubbish and recycling collections took place as usual. The good news is that most of the staff are back at work and so collections are back on course.

"If you subscribe to the garden waste collections, please put your tree out with your garden waste.

"Anyone who has not has their tree collected, and is not a garden waste subscriber can report it as a missed collection on the Cornwall Council website.

"Please continue to leave your tree out and we'll return at the earliest opportunity to collect it. Alternatively, you can take it to your nearest Household Waste Recycling Centre."

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