COUNCIL bosses have apologised after admitting that residents in pockets of York still have not been given their green wheelie bins.

The problem emerged when Acomb resident Maureen Rawcliffe contacted the Evening Press to complain that her street and several others had not been supplied with the bins, even though they had gardens.

She said homes in Tostig Avenue, Beech Grove, Fawkes Drive, Smeaton Grove and parts of Danebury Drive had all been affected.

Her husband, Ken, was forced to load up the car with garden waste and go to the dump instead.

Mrs Rawcliffe said that when they rang City of York Council to complain, an official replied that they should have got their green bins and blamed the problem on contractors employed by the authority to deliver them.

She said the council had been unable to say when the wheelie bins would be delivered, but refused her request for it to resume weekly collections of grey bins in the meantime.

The green bins, intended to hold garden waste, were meant to have been delivered to homes last month, and collected every other week - alternating with the traditional grey bins which hold ordinary household waste.

Mrs Rawcliffe said today her green bin was finally delivered last Friday, but she remained unimpressed with the council's performance.

"I just think it's a complete farce," she said.

A council spokeswoman said: "We are aware of certain pockets within the city that have not received green bins and are in the process of trying to ensure that every household that has been missed out receives a bin as quickly as possible.

"We are in discussions with Otto, the company responsible for manufacturing and delivering the bins for us, to resolve this without disrupting the day-to-day duties of council staff so that it doesn't impact upon the waste collection services being provided to local residents."

She said that as residents without a green bin had been managing with only a grey bin for two weeks, refuse collectors would take away any additional rubbish when emptying the grey bins - providing it was bagged up.

"We can only apologise to residents affected by this problem and assure them that we are working hard to resolve it," she said.

Updated: 09:47 Wednesday, October 19, 2005