Councils draw up bin strike plans

The strike will take place on Wednesday and Thursday

Councils across Northern Ireland are drawing up plans for how to deal with a strike next week which will affect bin collections and street sweeping.

It will take place on Wednesday and Thursday.

Belfast City Council said it will organise rubbish collections next Saturday and Sunday instead.

"54,000 households are going to be affected in those two days throughout the city," said the council's director of corporate services Trevor Salmon.

Mr Salmon said Northern Ireland largest council had delivered a leaflet to each of these houses.

"Because of statutory matters, the staff have to notify us in advance when they're going to have their strike action and we then accordingly take mitigating action to try to ensure that essential services are preserved," he said.