Richmondshire Council was one of the first authorities to adopt the controversial scheme which involves collecting house-hold waste one week and recyclables the next.

But after increasing the range of materials collected for recycling, the council found on busy days more waste was being left out than its bin wagons could hold.

The new system was also
placing more pressure on bin crews, who were clocking up overtime bills because they could no longer fit the new collection rounds, deep in the Dales, into their normal working hours.

Now the council has invested about £48,000 a year in a new, smaller vehicle to operate "mini" collection rounds, in addition to those already carried out by the larger fleet.

Coun Russell Lord, the local authority's spokesperson for Green Living, said: "We are confident the new service will resolve a number of outstanding concerns.

"Although the new vehicle will obviously cost more to operate, the big increase in recycling by residents since we rolled out alternate weekly collections should raise enough money to cover it."