COUNCIL binmen are being urged to ensure there is no repeat this weekend of "shameful" scenes in York's New Walk last Easter.

Environmental campaigners claim the popular riverside walk was ruined last year by unsightly rubbish, spilling out from overflowing litter bins which had not been emptied. They say similar problems happened through the rest of the tourist season as well.

"Visitors have said their walk to the Millennium Bridge has been spoiled by the sight of the bins," said Chris Baily, secretary of the pressure group, Friends of New Walk.

"With the opening of the bridge and the refurbishment of New Walk, the number of people using the walk has significantly increased - tourists and locals alike.

"It doesn't seem unreasonable to ask the council to tune-in the bin-emptying regime to the level required to prevent overflowing bins."

He said the authority was trying to encourage tourists out of the city centre, and was even funding the Friends to produce an official trail leaflet to help the council promote the walk.

"However, we are cautious about attracting further tourists to the area until the council shows some basic civic pride."

He said the council had agreed last autumn to carry out three litter collections per week during winter months, and four per week during summer months - on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday.

However, he claimed that recently, he had seen a binman failing to empty some bins that were half-full.

"He enjoyed the view and then got back in his van and didn't bother emptying the bin." He said the danger was that the bin would be full to overflowing by the time of the next scheduled collection.

He said the first real test would come this weekend, when the walk was likely to be very busy with tourists visiting York.

He claimed that the Friends had repeatedly written about its bin concerns to Stewart Grieve, client services manager with the council's environment and development services department, but had so far received no replies.

Mr Grieve said staff had responded verbally to points raised by the Friends.

He said he would ensure that bins were emptied on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday to meet the Easter rush.

He also said he would look into claims that staff had not emptied half-empty bins. He said such bins should be emptied during collection rounds.

Updated: 08:56 Tuesday, April 15, 2003