BROMSGROVE'S ambitious new £2m plus refuse and recycling scheme, launched in March and barely out of the news since, is improving.

That's the view of the district council as it reaches the halfway stage of the operation, which has now seen four of the eight district-wide rounds rolled out.

This week leaflets were being distributed to households in round five ahead of the delivery of the now familiar grey and green wheeliebins and recycling boxes.

According to district councillor Brian Fuller (Con-Hillside), who is the cabinet member responsible for the implementation and running of the scheme, the number of complaints has fallen sharply from when the scheme first began. The new service, which has replaced the long-standing back door collection, has had many critics as witnessed in our news and letter pages.

But Cllr Fuller believes improvements he has ordered as a result of experience gained, is now paying dividends.

Households coming on stream now receive just one easier to understand leaflet. And contractors who deliver the bins and boxes have been issued with maps and are guided round the district by a knowledgeable 'pilot.'

This has lessened the chance of households being issued with numerous bins or being missed.

"We still have a few problems," admitted Cllr Fuller. "But they are very minor."

He went on: "A number of people in the district have clearly not understood that kerbside and bi-weekly collections are not just happening in Bromsgrove but throughout the country as a whole.

"To have continued with a weekly back door collection on a recycling system would have been massively expensive and driven up council tax considerably."

pete.lammas@midlands.newsquest.co.uk