A North Yorkshire waste management firm has pledged to improve its complaints handling process during the next 12 months.

Yorwaste, which took over responsibility for waste management from North Yorkshire County Council in 1993, is aiming to respond to complaints about its household waste and landfill sites across the country within two working days - and settle them within a fortnight.

Managing director Steve Grieve in his annual report said the company had not been prosecuted in the past year, nor was it served with any enforcement notices.

"However, the management team is not satisfied with the number of complaints received, or with its responses to these complaints, and has set an improvement target for the current year," said Mr Grieve.

The managing director said because its household waste centres are visited by great numbers of people, there was a potential for complaints.

During the previous year, 35 complaints had been made across 14 sites. During the year under review, 42 complaints were lodged - the highest number being eight at the Stonefall site in Harrogate, near the Great Yorkshire Showground. Five were made against a site at Catterick, the same number against Ripon, but only one at Leyburn.

Mr Grieve says: "Whether complaints arise from the public, contractors or our own personnel, the company takes them very seriously and each one is formally recorded and investigated by the responsible manager.

"Of the latest 42 complaints over the past 12 months, 88 per cent were responded to within two working days and 93 per cent within a fortnight."

Across waste centres, the number of complaints averaged 1.8 complaints per site, compared with 1.5 the previous year.

Meanwhile, the company has continued to increase the amount of electricity sold to the national grid and produced from landfill sites.

And there has been a boost for kerbside collections of paper, glass and cans. Yorwaste has contracts for paper collections with Hambleton and Craven district councils, along with Harrogate Borough Council, covering 70,000 homes.

A kerbside collection of glass and cans now covers 70,000 homes in the York area and 50,000 in the Harrogate district.