Thank you, Ma’am, thank you so much

Following the devastating news of the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, our thoughts and prayers are with her family and indeed with everyone who is mourning the profound loss of this amazing woman.

She has done her duty and served this nation selflessly for over 70 years through both good times and bad, as well as fulfilling her role as head of the Commonwealth. This is no doubt one of the most significant events in our lifetime and we will always be grateful for everything she has done and the great example that has been set to us all.

I would like to extend our very best wishes to King Charles III. Long may he reign over us.

God save the King.

Mike Hill

Chief Executive

Swindon Town FC Community Foundation are delighted to announce that we have been awarded £10,000 of funding from The Hills Group Ltd. The money has been made available through the Landfill Communities Fund (LCF) which is administered for Hills by Community First, the Rural Community Council for Wiltshire. This funding is to support the creation of a new state of the art indoor Community sports facility on the former County Ground Bowls Club site.

This new facility in central Swindon will allow existing and new participants the opportunity to access the Foundation’s key projects and programmes to enhance and benefit people’s health and well-being, while also being a key support network to some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of the community. The delivery plan for the proposed project will also benefit local schools and grass root clubs that will use the facilities to support their training, matches and physical education.

Head of Foundation, Jon Holloway said: “We are delighted that we have secured funding from Community First and The Hills Group to build this new community facility. It is great to know that they both have embraced our vision to provide the local community with a state-of-the-art facility, which will allow us as an organisation to further increase and offer many of our core programmes on a wider scale.

In addition to this, we believe that this facility will provide the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our community, with new opportunities and ways to engage within the heart of the community, whilst also building upon the success of Foundation Park, and increasing the capacity of the over-all site, to run additional services and slots for play and training. We can now very much look forward to work commencing onsite within the next few months and the opening of this facility in the Autumn of 2022.”

Mike Hill, CEO of Hills, said: “The Hills Group has a strong connection with Swindon with our operations being based here for over 120 years and we are delighted to be able to provide funding for this important community space. We look forward to seeing the building once it is completed and open for use by all members of the Swindon community.”

Hills Municipal Collections have seen a downturn since the middle of May 2022 in applicants to fill vacancies for both Class2 HGV driver and collection operative roles arising from the normal turnover of staff within the business, combined with a reduction in the availability of agency staff to provide temporary cover whilst we look fill these vacancies.

This shortfall in the workforce has resulted in Hills Municipal Collections not being able to put out as many collection vehicles as normal. In agreement with the Council, we have prioritised our collection teams to maintain household residual black bin waste and green waste collections. This in turn has resulted in some residents experiencing delays in collection of their kerbside dry mixed recyclable materials, mainly in the North of the county. We are addressing this problem by running catch up rounds and people are advised to leave their bins out if they are not collected on their scheduled day and they will be emptied as soon as possible, in most instances this will be the following day.

To address the staffing shortage Hills Municipal Collections are undertaking a regional recruitment campaign to attract job seekers to these roles and highlighting the competitive salaries and generous benefits package on offer. Job seekers interested in applying should visit our website www.hillsgroup.co.uk or recruitment agency website www.jobs.cmdrecruitment.com . We would like to thank residents for their patience and can assure them that we are making every effort to return collection services to normal as soon as possible.

The Hills Group has provided Westbury Town Council with additional litter picking equipment to help with additional requests for litter picks in the town

Phil McMullen, Projects & Committee Clerk at Westbury Town Council, contacted Hills to see if the company could assist with providing new equipment, saying: “There is an increase in the number of requests to hold community litter picks in Westbury and for the Town Council to supply the equipment. These are in addition to the four litter picks that the councillors hold each year. The problem is, every time the kit goes out, we end up losing two or three pickers either to breakage or loss). It’s getting to be really expensive!”

Paul Scriven, Northacre MBT Plant Manager for Hills Waste Solutions, said: “We are thrilled to be able to help the Town Council again and provide them with the equipment they need so that these community events can continue to take place.

Andrew Thomas, External Services Team Leader for Westbury Town Council (pictured left), collected the 5 handheld litter pickers, 5 litter pick bag holders, 10 hiviz vests and 200 strong disposal bags equipment from Paul Scriven at the MBT plant (pictured right).

The fire on the Lower Compton landfill has been extinguished and the Fire & Rescue Service left the site at 11.15 this morning.

The Lower Compton Landfill site will open for normal business tomorrow 29 April.

Mike Hill, chief executive of The Hills Group said: “I would like to thank both the Fire & Rescue services for their quick response and our employees who have worked alongside the Fire & Rescue Service during the incident to ensure the fire was brought under control as quickly as possible.”

No personal injury or damage to property has resulted from the incident.

The cause of the fire has not been established and investigations into this will continue.

The Fire & Rescue Service is now reporting the fire as ‘under control’ and has been contained to a section of the landfill cell. Whilst 40,000 tonnes of waste had been tipped into the cell, the vast majority of this waste is unaffected by the fire.

The combined efforts of Hills site staff and the Fire Service have made significant progress in smothering the fire which will continue over the next few hours.

As a result, there will be a ‘watching brief’ overnight and the landfill site remains closed as a precautionary measure.

A member of staff detected a fire on the Lower Compton landfill site at 05:00am Wednesday 27 April. The Fire & Rescue Service was called immediately and the site emergency plan initiated. The incident is ongoing and emergency services remain in attendance. The landfill site has been temporarily closed, but all other operations on site are open.

We are working with the Fire & Rescue Service, and other agencies, to help bring the fire under control. There has been no personal injury or damage to property as a result of the fire. Advice from the Fire & Rescue Service is for local residents to keep windows and doors closed during the incident.