REFUSE collectors began strike action on Monday following weeks of wrangling with Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.

They are unhappy with council plans to introduce a series of shift patterns, which would see them working in the evenings.

A ban on overtime is under way and union members have agreed to a second one-day strike on Thursday next week.

The refuse workers say their plight has won the support of residents throughout Redcar and Cleveland, including the people of Dormanstown, who should have had their bins emptied on Monday.

One resident said: "I am 100 per cent behind them. They have been asked to work odd hours and that is wrong. I don't want people collecting rubbish or sweeping the streets at night."

Another added: "I thought binmen worked early hours to get the best of the daylight."

Redcar and Cleveland Council said it had made a number of concessions, including bringing the finishing time for the new arrangements from 9pm to 7.30pm in the summer months and possibly extending the 7.30pm finish to winter months as well.

Coun David Walsh, leader of the council, said: "We believed there was a real chance to sort out this dispute on the basis of our concessions and discussion points. We still do."

Meanwhile, accusations that council staff delivering letters to refuse collectors were met with threats of violence were denied.

A meeting of the council executive on Tuesday was told threats were 'so severe' that deliveries were stopped immediately.

The threats claim was dismissed as 'absolute nonsense' by Unison leader John McDade. He said: "These are typical tactics from an employer who is losing the arguments in public."

The letters detailed council concessions and made clear the refuse staff would be out of work if the problem is not resolved by December 6.