A FORMER York In Bloom judge and landscape gardener has been told the plants in his green bin were not "green" enough.

Graham Warner, 46, of Askham Croft off Askham Lane, in Acomb, who was a York In Bloom judge 15 years ago, spent his week off doing his own garden for a change, taking out tired summer bedding plants.

Eco-friendly Mr Warner had already filled two compost bins, and went on to put the rest in his council green bin, putting it out for collection. But when he returned from work he found to his horror that the bin had not been emptied, and carried a sticker saying not only was the bin too heavy, but the material inside was unsuitable for composting.

"I don't know whether the binmen just don't know their stuff about what can and can't be composted or just didn't bother to look inside the bin, but I think it's pretty shoddy they left it," said Mr Warner. "I admit it was quite heavy, but then the plants were pretty wet, and you have got to expect that at this time of the year, with the rain we have been having."

Mr Warner said he called City of York Council's York Pride action line several times and was promised his bin would be emptied by two days later.

But it took the council a week to collect Mr Warner's bin, and he said that when the binmen did finally arrive they simply upended his green bin in to his black bin before taking it off to landfill.

"The council's new bin collections have been a fiasco from start to finish," said Mr Warner.

On November 8, the Evening Press reported that 6,500 people had called on council chiefs to scrap their alternate waste pick up scheme in York.

A City of York Council spokesperson said: "There was a large amount of soil in the bin from around the bedding plants, which should ideally have been shaken off when they were uprooted. This would certainly have contributed to the weight issue."

Updated: 09:46 Saturday, November 19, 2005