Story by Rory Poulter

Council bosses have announced that bin collections across the borough this week will start at 5.30am to help staff survive the heatwave.

This week, families will be waking up to the crash, bang wallop of collections rather than the sweet sound of birdsong.

And those who normally do the morning dash at around 7am to make sure the bins and recycling are out will need to be particularly quick off the mark.

Collecting the borough's rubbish and recycling is a particularly heavy work and, with temperatures predicted to soar towards 40C, protecting the health of staff is paramount.

The Council said: "Due to the high temperatures forecasted, household waste, recycling and garden waste collections will start at the earlier time of 5.30am, to protect our collection crews' health."