Last week we had an unwelcome example of something that has thankfully become much rarer these days – a national strike by some trade unions about national issues, which had a disproportionate effect on some local residents.

It’s worth remembering that the vast majority of council workers here in Swindon worked as normal on the day, and covered the absences of those who did not work to make sure essential services kept running.

These people crossed picket lines and put their duty to the public first, and it was gratifying to see so many council services continued without any noticeable disruption.

Unfortunately, for those people whose bin and recycling collections coincided with the strike day, most found themselves without a service, leaving them with uncollected waste.

Our main priority afterwards was to work out how to collect the backlog.

We couldn’t hire outside staff on the day to do the work of those on strike, and we can’t reward people by paying them overtime to collect rubbish that should have been collected as part of their normal duties.

Coun Brian Ford, the Cabinet Member for Streetsmart and senior council staff have now made arrangements to make sure that the rubbish will be collected by the end of the week.

While I accept that people have the right to strike, I believe the recent action was unwarranted and counter-productive, and I was particularly disappointed that the unions chose not to negotiate roles that would be exempt from industrial action.

In the past, they have reached agreements with the council that sheltered housing wardens and emergency staff from the Council’s Children Services teams, for example, should be exempt because the work they do protects some of the most vulnerable people we look after.

This time, they were apparently happy to drag these people into their dispute.

The strike was about national pay and conditions and had nothing to do with Swindon Borough Council specifically.

It’s absolutely right that as an employer, we pay salaries that are competitive in the market.

However, I am also acutely aware that as a public sector employer, any increases we pay will ultimately come from council tax payers, or cause job losses to balance the books.

Neither of those options do much to help lower-paid workers.

The strike has cost this council money at a time when we are facing the huge task of finding £17m savings in the next financial year, while coping at the same time with an ever-increasing demand for services.

Strikes will do nothing to help us meet that challenge.