RESIDENTS are still contacting York councillors complaining about the city's two-week household waste pick ups - more than six weeks after the scheme was introduced.

Coun Ruth Potter, Labour's environment spokeswoman, said her party continued to be contacted by people unhappy that City of York Council workers were collecting the wrong bins from their gardens, or not collecting them at all.

Coun Potter was criticising the Liberal Democrats' alternate waste collection scheme at a full council meeting, after the ruling group expressed concern that waste penalties could cost the authority about £53 million in the next decade.

The Evening Press Bin It! campaign is arguing for the retention of weekly collections of household waste, which were scrapped at the start of October, while supporting moves to boost recycling. More than 6,500 residents have signed a petition supporting our campaign.

Coun Martin Lancelott, chair of an environment panel, told councillors that the 1,235 tonnes of green waste recycled in the first four weeks of the scheme proved the authority was "winning the battle for hearts and minds".

He said: "It is clear that the residents of York are willing to do their bit. I know that in Heworth Without we contributed more than any other ward to the diversion of green waste from landfill before the introduction of green bins.

"City wide residents have responded magnificently to the recycling agenda. 1,235 tonnes of green waste was recycled in the first four weeks, thousands more green boxes have been requested and as part of this recycling rates for other materials have increased by 23 per cent."

But Coun Potter said: "You (Lib Dems) are so incompetent that you haven't even managed to put your own scheme in place properly.

"We are still receiving complaints about problems with the wrong bins being collected or bins not being collected at all.

"The scheme will still not have settled in before you will be changing it again at the end of this month (reverting to weekly pick ups over the winter)."

Updated: 09:46 Saturday, November 19, 2005