SKIPS outside the former council offices in York city centre have been filling up with office furniture this week prompting protests from passers-by.

Bosses at City of York Council have offered assurances that everything that can be salvaged will be following concerns of needless waste when the authority moves to the West Office HQ.

Rosemary Wrigglesworth contacted The Press after she saw the removals taking place in St Leonard’s Place.

Workmen were spotted taking chairs and desks from the buildings no longer used by the authority and putting them into a pair of skips in the street.

She said: “I just passed St Leonard’s Place and they were loading dozens of office chairs and deskchairs into two great big skips.

“They aren’t being taken to the new council offices. They are being thrown away,” she claimed.

“The council is expecting us to pay two per cent more council tax? It’s just pathetic.”

But a council spokeswoman said the firm clearing the council premises, Amaryllis, had loaded the items into the skips until a removal van arrived to take them away to be sorted so as to decide which could be reused.

She said: “Items in good condition go to their second-hand furniture range and are sold on, with City of York Council receiving a rebate on these items. Items in medium condition are repaired or used as spares in the recycling process, with finished items going into the Reform range.

“The work in recycling is undertaken through work schemes in prisons, and City of York Council would receive a rebate on these items.

“Items which cannot be resold or recycled are sent to landfill. This is mainly items such as damaged foam from the seats of chairs and in most cases makes up less than four per cent of the total.”

The spokeswoman also said: “The use of the skip outside of 9 St Leonard’s by Amaryllis was to ensure a safe holding area or drop-off point for furniture, prior to it being loaded into the removal van used.

“This measure was taken because the removal team were initially working quicker than the van could be loaded, delivered and returned to site.”