THE introduction of a four-day week for council refuse collection teams could be on the cards.

The idea is one of a number of measures being studied by officers in Darlington.

Talks with workers and unions are ongoing in an effort to bring about various changes in the refuse service and to sort out arrangements for Christmas and other bank holidays.

Christmas saw a rise in the number of complaints about the service, the public protection and community scrutiny committee heard this week.

Assistant director of environmental services Ian Thompson said to try to address different problems, the recycling service was suspended from December 27 to January 4 with things getting back to normal on January 5 - much earlier than the previous year.

The amount of recyclable material collected between December 13 and January 28 had been 596 tonnes, compared with 492 tonnes for a similar period in 2003/04.

But it was pointed out that the recycling service did not start until November 2003.

"The recycling collection method for this last year had no significant impact on the volume of material collected," said Mr Thompson.

He said there had been 510 complaints about the service over the Christmas period - compared with 324 in 2003/04.

Most were about missed collections for domestic rubbish mainly due to uncertainty about collection days.

Householders had been used to the service running a day behind, whereas for this Christmas 60pc of residents were unaffected and the collection day stayed the same.

Mr Thompson said a major advertising campaign had been mounted to inform people of the holiday schedule.

Less frequent collections from local "bring sites" had led to overflowing at recycling banks over Christmas, leading to litter and vandalism problems.

Mr Thompson said talks had been held with unions regarding Easter and the May and August bank holidays and there would be negotiations on Christmas working for 2005/06.

"On the whole the Christmas arrangements were successful," he said. "We minimised disruption to residents and propose a similar system for this coming year."

Mr Thompson admitted that some recyclable material would have been lost over Christmas.

Chairman Doris Jones said: "So this is false economy at the end of the day. And 510 complaints is 510 complaints we do not want. All these people are not happy and that is not good. We have to make sure it does not happen on any other bank holiday."

"Recycling tonnage went up when the service resumed," said Mr Thompson. "But some stuff will have gone in the ordinary bin, I don't doubt that."

Coun Bryan Thistlethwaite said: "People are creatures of habit. What about a Tuesday to Friday collection system to get over the problem of bank holidays?"

"A number of working practices need to change," said Mr Thompson. "A four-day week is worth thinking about as it has obvious benefits on bank holidays.

"I gather the lads like a four-day week but we need to think carefully about this.