COUNCIL bosses alienated York people with their "arrogance" in imposing a new fortnightly household refuse collection system, a leading councillor told members.

But Labour environment spokeswoman Ruth Potter's motion to a full City of York Council meeting demanding weekly collections be reinstated until a trial and a consultation were carried out was rejected.

Coun Potter told Liberal Democrat councillors their alternate collection scheme had not won "people's hearts and minds" and urged the council to "listen to what they say".

She said the Labour group was committed to increasing recycling and minimising waste in York, but added: "We do not believe this administration has gone about this aim in the right way. Indeed, we believe that the policy to reduce weekly residual waste to fortnightly will be counterproductive as the reasons why waste needs to be reduced here have not been explained thoroughly.

"You have not won people's hearts and minds, you have alienated them by your arrogance. You only have to look at the pages of the Evening Press to see how angry the residents of York are over this issue."

The council's refuse policies were debated for more than two hours in a lively council meeting last night but, despite motions from Coun Potter, Green councillor Andy D'Agorne and independent Janet Hopton, Liberal Democrat members stood firm.

A Liberal Democrat motion was passed expressing regret that "central Government continues to make inadequate resources available... to improve recycling arrangements in the city while taking considerable sums of money from York residents through its Landfill Tax".

The motion backed an alternate weekly scheme, but said public concern must be "given serious consideration".

The Evening Press Bin It! campaign has called for the return of weekly waste pick-ups while backing measures to recycle. More than 5,500 people have so far signed up to our campaign.

Coun Potter said York residents were concerned about the health and safety aspects of having their bins waiting to be collected for two weeks.

She also branded the launch of the scheme a "waste of money" after the Evening Press reported some York streets had been handed the wrong waste collection calendars.

Coun Andrew Waller, the council's environment chief, said the penalties York faced in Landfill Tax if they did not reduce the amount of waste were too high to risk.

Council leader Steve Galloway said: "If we are to balance the budget to reduce Landfill Tax fines then we have no choice.

"Despite the virulent campaign run by the local media, we already have a measure of success to report."

York seeks compensation for mix-up

WHATEVER you do, don't mention the bins!

German wheelie-bin suppliers, OTTO, have been blamed for the mix-up which left 400 York householders fuming after they were sent the wrong "calendars" telling them which type of bin to put out.

City of York Council environment chief Coun Andrew Waller said they had hired OTTO to deliver the green bins along with the appropriate calendars.

But residents in Copmanthorpe, Fulford and Acaster Malbis put out green bins as instructed by the information - only to discover refuse collectors were only emptying grey bins.

Coun Waller said he "personally checked" that the information supplied to OTTO was correct, but revealed they inadvertently sent out the wrong calendars to some addresses.

"As that work was not completed we will be seeking compensation from them," he said.

OTTO, which has a UK base which the council dealt with, was formed more than 70 years ago as a manufacturer of metal waste bins in Kreuztal, Germany.

A spokeswoman for City of York Council said: "We can confirm that the bins were manufactured by Otto and that the company also arranged delivery of them. After we expressed our concern to our contacts at Otto about problems with the deliveries, they have offered to help us to put things right.

"It would be inappropriate to discuss commercially sensitive information relating to the cost of the bins and the matter of compensation."

A spokesman for Otto UK said there was "no need to apologise" for the error.

"It's clearly bad that people have been put out but we don't know whose fault it is," he said.

"The important thing is that we're trying to work with the council to put things right now.

"We've heard nothing about compensation."

The council spokeswoman said: "The green wheeled bins were procured with the advice of City of York Council's procurement team through the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation."

Updated: 09:44 Wednesday, October 05, 2005