SWEEPING changes are planned for York's refuse collections after residents slammed the council for leaving rotting rubbish in the streets.

Frustrated householders from across the city complained to the Evening Press about problems with their refuse collections over Christmas and the New Year.

Residents in Barlow Street, Acomb, claimed their back alley was stuffed with 6ft- high piles of bin bags when their rubbish was left uncollected for more than two-and-a-half weeks.

In Clifton, householders were outraged when their festive rubbish was left uncollected for a fortnight.

In the Leeman Road area, large amounts of rubbish were left behind by refuse collectors, attracting feral cats, rats and foxes to the area.

Now City of York Council is to review the arrangements for Christmas collections.

It plans to change the procedure for Bank Holiday collections to avoid problems and confusion in the future.

At the moment residents with Monday collections have their rubbish collected the Saturday before a Bank Holiday. This means that 20 per cent of homes in the city have to wait nine days for their next collections.

Stewart Grieve, cleansing zervices manager, said: "The advanced collection results in many residents forgetting to have their refuse available for collection even though notification has been given by means of a sticker on bins or printed sacks. The York Pride Action Line is always extremely busy following a Bank Holiday Monday with reports of missed collections."

The new proposals, which will go before the environment and sustainability advisory panel on Wednesday, will see all collections in the city carried out a day later than normal during a Bank Holiday week.

This means if residents forget the changes and put out their rubbish on the usual day, they will not have missed the collection.

The council also plans to treat Good Friday as a working day from now on and carry out the city's Friday collections as normal.

A further report on Christmas refuse collections is being prepared and will be given to members later this year.

Updated: 09:56 Saturday, February 07, 2004