BIN collection services are still fully operational in the Wee County with plans being put in place to keep it going amid the "extremely challenging" coronavirus crisis.

Staff at Clackmannanshire Council are determined to maintain services, and with people being told to stay home during lockdown the importance of household refuse collection has never been greater.

Last week, the local authority moved their focus to ensuring statutory services would remain – with others having to be sacrificed, with staffing levels among the key challenges.

Iain McDonald, senior manager at Clackmannanshire Council, said: "The past few weeks have been extremely challenging for our staff but our priority is to ensure that we provide a refuse collection service for the people of Clackmannanshire.

"We are developing contingency plans to make sure this can continue as much as possible if we face staff shortages.

"I would urge people to keep checking our website for updates."

Visit clacks.gov.uk/coronavirus for a wide range of information and to see the latest updates.

Town halls, Alloa Leisure Bowl, the Fir Park Ski Centre, the Forthbank Recycling Centre, libraries and CAPs, the Ludgate House Resource Centre in Alloa and more are closed to the public.

The Adult Day Service for disabled people is also closed, but service users are being contacted on the phone daily to see if there are any issues and to signpost people.

People are being advised to stay home and only leave for essential shopping once a day and for one from of exercise.

Non-essential businesses have also been ordered to close.

Alloa First business improvement district is advising that the regular weekly kerbside recycling uplift from the Binn Group went ahead for the last time today (Wednesday, March 25).

This was the last uplift until further notice as many businesses and organisations locked up their premises in the town centre.

Alloa town centre businesses can contact diane@alloafirst.co.uk or call 07866 590 533 for support or with ideas.