BROMSGROVE'S new refuse collection and recyling service is severely criticised in a report published this week by a cross party group of district councillors.

The group will report back to the health and leisure scrutiny committee at a meeting next Tuesday.

The meeting will be held at the Council House, in Burcot Lane, and members of the public can attend.

The group is chaired by Councillor Stephen Peters, who represents Hollywood and Majors Green for Wythall Ratepayers and Residents' Association.

Briefly the report highlights -

l Management's failure to organise an effective service from day one

l Kerbside collections should not have started until all dispensations had been processed

l Refuse remained uncollected for several weeks

l No further letters should be sent to householders, too much information has only served to confuse

l Non-delivery of bins - a blunder resulted in some being delivered outside the district - made it necessary for householders to have to continue using their own bins and sacks

l Failure and delays to deal adequately with complaints, plus complaints of council staff being "unhelpful and impolite"

One interesting fact to emerge is that as the binmen do not start work until 7am the call to have bins by the kerbside at 6am on collection days need never have arisen. This was widely opposed by residents when stated in an initial letter to householders.

The group is also critical that the county council's waste transfer station, which is to be built next to the district council's depot in Aston Road, is not operational. This will facilitate the "handing over" of waste to the county council for disposal.

The report concludes with a list of recommendations for improvements before phase two starts in July.

But leader of the Labour group, Cllr Peter McDonald (Waseley), has described the report as a "whitewash" and called for Cllr Peters' resignation.

He claimed many issues, including wasting cash and Bromsgrove council's refusal to accept help from neighbouring Redditch, have not been addressed.

Cllr Peters said he will not resign saying that many of the issues Cllr McDonald complains of were not in their brief, but could be examined at a later date.