IT hasn’t been an easy few days for Councillor Neil Laurenson, who is coming under criticism from not only his native Worcester, but now Wychavon too.

The pint-sized Green Party member is still trying to convince the city council to give residents a third bin for food waste collections, despite a backdrop of apparent unease among residents and fellow politicians.

Now it’s emerged that Wychavon District Council, which unlike Worcester does indeed currently offer food waste pick-ups, is looking to scrap the service due to a lack of interest.

Despite it costing £600,000 to operate just 20 per cent of the district’s residents use it, making it an easy sacrificial lamb for an authority looking to save £4m by 2017.

Coun Paul Middlebrough, the Tory leader in Wychavon, was quoted as saying he’s “spoken to the leader of Worcester City Council” and that the idea of launching it here is a “twinkle in the eye of one particular member of the authority”.

That might not go down too well with Coun Adrian Gregson, the Labour leader at the Guildhall, who desperately needs to remain on good terms with Coun Laurenson to avoid his fledgling administration falling into disrepair.

The very least the notoriously grumpy Coun Gregson could do is instruct his colleagues to pretend to be interested in the scheme, after all.

But let’s just say the Labour lot in Worcester are genuinely enthused with this idea, and want this current cross-party investigation to be a serious one.

One might then come to the conclusion that Coun Middlebrough is desperate to get rid of a service which has failed miserably to engage with the public at large, despite costing taxpayers serious dosh.

Remarkably, in a 2007 survey 87 per cent of residents in Wychavon backed food waste pick-ups - exactly the same percentage of people who now say they would not be bothered if it were axed.

So who introduced food waste collections in Wychavon then, set the strategy for it and decided how to handle the roll-out? Yep, Coun Middlebrough’s very own Conservative cabinet!

* THE Source hears John Major will be coming to Worcester some time next year to give a talk to Worcester Conservative Association.

Atfer many months of trying, city MP Robin Walker has struck an agreement with the former premier to pop in and see the branch's rank and file - a welcome morale booster, if nothing else in these trying times.

Let's hope there isn't a member of the branch called Edwina.