THE controversy surrounding City of York Council's new refuse collection service continued, as a leading councillor condemned consultation over the changes as "too little, too late".

A series of mix-ups has also left some Tang Hall residents without green bins or any information about the changed service.

The Friends of St Nicholas Fields - an environmental community group - will run a recycling service in the area around Constantine Avenue and Alcuin Avenue, but residents will lose their weekly collection service.

The news came as the opposition Labour group's environment spokeswoman criticised the city council for failing to properly prepare residents for the new bins regime.

Constantine Avenue resident Claire Thomas, 22, said council staff had assured her last Tuesday morning that the area would retain a weekly collection.

She said: "We phoned the council in the morning and they told us that the grey bins would be collected every week. Later in the afternoon they completely backtracked, saying we have all received a letter and a calendar, which none of my neighbours have received," she said.

"They do not seem to know what is going on in one street and what is not. We have not had even so much as a warning letter to tell us that our bins will not be collected every week."

A City of York Council spokeswoman said: "Residents have received a series of leaflets explaining the citywide changes to the waste collection and how this will affect them.

"However, we recognise that some householders may be a little confused. We have arranged for our team of recycling promoters to visit the area next week to chat to residents about the specifics of how the scheme will work in their particular area as well as providing advice to help them recycle more waste. We hope this will help avoid any further confusion."

John Brierley, project manager at St Nicholas Fields, said: "We did send clear information about the changes.

"Obviously, with any change like this there is a possibility for confusion and things going wrong, but our service remains the same."

Meanwhile, Labour's environment spokeswoman, Coun Ruth Potter, criticised the council for its failure "to prepare residents properly for the new fortnightly bin regime". She said moves for authority officers to attend ward committee meetings to explain the waste scheme were "too little, too late".

"It isn't much use giving residents more information about the new system now, when residents have been struggling to deal with the fortnightly collections for weeks already," she said.

"This should have been discussed with residents not only before the scheme was introduced, but before the council even decided on the scheme - but consultation and forethought are alien concepts to this Lib Dem council."

Why you should back campaign

OUR campaign is opposed to City of York Council's decision to scrap the weekly refuse collection for 60,000 households, while at the same time supporting efforts to boost recycling.

The authority has started collecting ordinary household rubbish every fortnight, with collections of green garden waste on every other week.

We urge readers to sign the petition published here to support our campaign or register your opposition online on our website at www.thisisyork.co.uk

Updated: 10:32 Monday, October 17, 2005