A MAN whose household waste has been piling up since the city council's new collection service was introduced claims council workers are "playing pass the parcel" with his problem.

Chris England, 40, of Holtby Lane, Holtby, York, has watched a mountain of rubbish stack up outside his home for three weeks while he has waited for a collection.

He has filled both his black and green bins with refuse, but council workers continue to miss out his home on the fortnightly collections.

He said: "If we do not have a collection soon we will almost be up to a month. The whole thing is just absolutely ridiculous, it's just rubbish.

"If they were operating as any normal business and did not carry out that service I would not pay them, but I have no choice.

"What I should do now is actually stop paying my council tax because one of the main services they provide for me is the refuse collection."

Mr England, who lives with his wife and two children, said he had contacted the council, but they had failed to arrange an emergency collection.

Now he fears they will not remove the extra waste that has piled up over the last three weeks.

He said: "They said they have had different crews on who do not know the area that well. But the right hand does not know what the left is doing.

"I said I have to put ordinary refuse into a green bin and they said they could not empty that because they have been instructed not to.

"The problem is that nobody in charge is capable of giving you any sort of answers as to how the problem will be solved. They are just playing pass the parcel."

The new fortnightly collections of household waste have been plagued by problems since they were introduced this month by the City of York Council.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said: "On October 18, we received a report from Mr England that his grey bin had not been emptied. The reason for this is not clear, but we will, of course, go back for it as soon as we can.

"We will also collect any additional rubbish that Mr England has been unable to fit in his grey bin, providing it is bagged up.

"We apologise for any inconvenience caused to Mr England by this error."

Waste management bosses have praised the city council's new refuse collection scheme, after it processed hundreds of tonnes of garden rubbish in its first week. Refuse firm Yorwaste said it had handled 336 tonnes of green waste delivered by City of York Council as part of its new recycling service.

John Miller, Yorwaste's company's recycling and external affairs manager, said there had been teething problems, but he was confident the scheme would be a success.

He said: "With any scheme of this scale, there is bound to be some initial confusion as people get used to having new recycling bins and different collection dates.

But the fact 336 tonnes of green waste was collected in just the first week is proof that the scheme is already a success."

Updated: 13:17 Monday, October 24, 2005