Appreciative residents have left heartwarming letters of support for binmen continuing their everyday routine amid the coronavirus outbreak.

A number of handwritten messages dedicated to workmen from refuse collecting firm Serco - which empties bins across the Canterbury district - have helped lift spirits among the teams.

Canterbury City Council shared a number of the supportive messages on its Facebook page.

One of the letters reads: "To all our wonderful refuse and recycling collectors. A big thank you for the wonderful job you do for us, especially in this crisis.

"Please take care of yourselves, and keep safe."

An authority spokesman thanked residents for helping keep up morale.

He said: "We're absolutely loving the supportive messages Serco crews are receiving at the moment.

"These small gestures are really helping them get through these challenging and difficult times, so thank you to anyone who's been kind enough to write them a card, stick a message to the bin or email in."

Meanwhile, city council leader Rob Thomas also applauded the bin crews.

He said: "Wonderful to see that people have respect for the teams.

"It's not an easy job, not many people would want to or could do this job.

"It's great to hear that people recognise the value of the work they do. If they didn't turn up week in week out we'd soon notice them.

"Big love to all our key workers. Keep up the great work."

Serco did admit to a mishap last week after pictures emerged of staff having "briefly forgotten" about the new coronavirus social distancing restrictions.

Garden waste collections across the district were cancelled for the foreseeable future last week due to depleted staff numbers.

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