RECYCLING bosses came under fire from Prestwich residents after they kicked up a stink about the new bin collections.

The Longfield Suite's Memorial Hall was packed with people on Tuesday night wishing to complain about the new household waste scheme to Mike Savage, the borough operational services officer.

Councillors reported to Prestwich Area Board that they had received hundreds of complaints about the fortnightly wheelie bin collection and the new kerbside black box container for recyclable rubbish.

Residents claimed the new system was causing serious health risks as their household rubbish was allowed to build up in between the fortnightly collections.

Councillor Ann Garner, of Sedgley ward, said: "I have received 101 grumbles about the fortnightly collection. I have people e-mailing me on a daily basis with photographs of their rubbish overflowing and with their complaints."

Coun Vic D'Albert said he had received 70 complaints and his colleague Tim Pickstone also had a long list of residents' gripes.

Shneur Odze, who is the Conservative candidate for Sedgley, said families had been subjected to "humiliating" waste audits as council officers had sorted through their rubbish to determine whether they qualified for an extra grey bin.

He said: "They were told that they should not be buying this item and that item: it is humiliating. There would be even more waste audits than the council is admitting but I suspect people are fed up with it and have decided not to bother."

Mr Savage gave an update on the scheme to the meeting and said that while the project was causing them "major problems", they had no choice but to continue with the pilot.

He said: "The alternate collection we started from March 2 is a major problem. But this authority is not looking at going back to a weekly collection. It will run the pilot scheme and report back to members who will then make a decision based on our findings."

Mr Savage admitted there was a backlog of waste audits to get through and they were time-consuming as each one took an hour. He also said the size of the black boxes had posed problems and the fact that the containers had no lids.

One member of the audience said: "The black boxes have lids but they are not secure and the rubbish can be strewn out all over the street. We were also told we could have the same box back after emptying but you end up with anybody's."

Concerns were also raised about the weight of the boxes for the elderly and disabled and Mr Savage said he was looking at obtaining boxes with wheels on for the future.

Coun D'Albert added: "This whole thing smacks of panic. It is ill-thought out and seems as though it was all made up just a few weeks ago. An extra collection was arranged for the Jewish community during Passover but only in Sedgley Park. There are hundreds of Jewish people so why don't we treat them all the same?"