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Hello, I'm speaking to you from the little cupboard in our flat.

It's full of kind of bags with welly boots in them. Empty old bags. Some cardboard boxes. No idea what's in that one. And over the Easter weekend it was the site of a heated discussion in our house

about whether during the shutdown you can have a clear out because it seems like a good time to chuck away stuff that you don't want.

But I'm not convinced because public services are under quite a lot of pressure.

Is it a good idea?

So I've called in an expert. It's Sarah Elliot who's head of

fleet and waste management at Coventry City Council. Hello Sarah.

Hello. Help me solve this dilemma. Well I think firstly I would say I can completely understand why people who are sitting at home

with not a lot to do might want to have a big clear out but as you've said there is a great deal of pressure on the services

in lots of areas across the country and you are likely not going to be able to get rid of the

stuff that you've cleared out. So my advice would be this

is not the right time to be doing a bit clear out.

Okay, thank you for clearing that up if you pardon the pun. Why would we not be able to get rid of our rubbish?

I would say to everybody to have a look and take guidance from their local council,

hearing Coventry because of the need to protect both staff and the public, the facilities for our

household waste recycling centre are closed. There are other services as well that

people would normally utilize such as bulky waste collections, that a lot of authorities have had to reduce and equally

you know there's really hard working guys out on the front line that are continuing to collect the

bins putting into there would you know would not help them at all.

So suppose what you're saying is it's not a ban on having a spring clean, it's just, it's not a very

good idea to do it because of the pressures that the system's under.

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