Brighton and Hove Council buys four more new bin lorries as investigation starts into suspected sabotage

A senior councillor announced the purchase of the lorries, which will be used to empty communal bins, as council leader Bella Sankey spoke out about the sabotage.

Brighton and Hove City Council issued a statement saying: “CCTV cameras at the council’s Hollingdean depot are being analysed after the wires on two lorries were purposely cut to ensure the vehicles couldn’t operate and therefore couldn’t go out on collection rounds.”

Councillor Sankey said: “The cutting of lorry wires is unlawful and scandalous and is extremely dangerous to our staff. It’s also criminal activity which has been reported and is being investigated by Sussex Police.”

She said that a small minority were disrupting the rubbish and recycling service and added: “We will not be held to ransom by these people.”

Labour councillor Tim Rowkins said: “First, I want to acknowledge the significant drop in the reliability of our refuse and recycling collections in recent weeks.

“After a few months of much-improved service to our residents, it’s obviously very disappointing to see it disrupted in this way.”

Councillor Rowkins said that communal bin collections were missed on several occasions over the past few weeks.

He said: “I was personally out with one of the rounds last week, helping to clear the backlog in the city centre.

“Our communal vehicles are some of the oldest in the fleet and I’m pleased to say that we will be taking delivery of four new communal vehicles over the next few weeks.

“As well as being zero-emission EVs (electric vehicles), these new vehicles will bring significant reliability improvements to the service.

“The existing vehicles will be kept on standby for an extended period of time in order to ensure that we have a safety net in case of any teething difficulties with the new ones.

“Lasting improvements to this service remain a central focus of this administration and we will continue to give it the attention that it deserves.”

Councillor Rowkins was speaking at a meeting of the council’s City Environment, South Downs and the Sea Committee at Hove Town Hall this afternoon (Tuesday 12 March).

He chairs the committee which received a report about the items that the government expects councils to collect for recycling by the end of March 2026.

The council already collects a number of the materials such as glass jars and bottles and steel and aluminium tins and cans.

But it will also be expected to collect cartons, pots, tubs and trays, aluminium foil and trays and plastic film packaging. More details about how the change are managed will be given in future reports.