A paper recycling scheme got off to a shaky start with a collections being made a day late.

Hambleton District Council last week launched a recycling service for 20,000 homes in and around Northallerton, Thirsk, Easingwold and Stokesley.

The first day of collection for Northallerton was meant to be Monday and hundreds of residents filled up special blue sacks with old newspapers for kerbside collection.

But a problem with one of the contractors, Yorwaste, meant collections were up to a day late in some areas.

Eric Kendall, the council's head of environmental health and housing, said: "It was one of those unfortunate things.

"The vehicle to be used was not delivered on time and they were late in starting. But from our point of view they should have had contingency plans.

"We were not very happy about it. What we didn't want was paper being left out unnecessarily. We had a discussion with the contractor and, as a result, they worked until it was dark on Monday, and then finished up on Tuesday morning.

"We have sought assurances that the rest of the collections will be done on the correct days, and if there are problems with vehicles, that contingencies are put in place."

John Miller, contract manager at Yorwaste, said the scheme suffered from a technical hitch, but was proving to be a success. "We experienced small teething problems to start with and apologise if this caused any inconvenience," he said.