THREE council recycling wagons worth £135,000 are standing idle because they are too dangerous to use.

The wagons are parked at the council's commercial services depot in Wellington Street, Bolton.

They were bought two months ago and have only been used a couple of times to pick up the green recycling bins from the town's residents before being abandoned.

Yet residents are still being asked to separate their rubbish into different recycling containers. These are then thrown into refuse in the back of a conventional wagon before being driven to Darwen where the rubbish is sorted out manually.

The move has led to anger and accusations that the local authority is wasting council taxpayers' money. The council says sending rubbish to Darwen is cheaper than using the recycling wagons.

But unions claim the wagons have been scrapped because they are unsafe since workers have to climb steps to empty the rubbish.

Arnold Norton, of the General Municipal Boilermakers Union, said: "It's just the design of these things. There are three steps to go up and they are very high. You can imagine what they would be like with snow and ice on them.

"Modifications have been made to the vehicles after a safety representative from GMB came down but it was decided the vehicles were not practical for what was required."

Now a councillor has called for an investigation into why the wagons were bought and how much money has been wasted.

Conservative Andy Morgan said: "A full and proper investigation should have been carried out before all this money was paid."

Meanwhile all waste - household and recycled - is being collected by the usual refuse wagons and then taken to Darwen to be recycled again by a company called R U Recycling.

And residents are still filling their green bins with glass, plastic and tins.

Tracy Cahill, of Saxby Avenue, Bromley Cross, slammed the move.

She said: "It's such as waste of our time and money for all the waste to be chucked into the same truck. I sort out all my tins and bottles and even wash them all. I couldn't believe it when they were being thrown in together."

Bosses at Commercial Services said they had bought the vehicles - and then decided that to take the rubbish in normal wagons to Darwen would be more efficient.

They say the wagons will be sold because the council is now happy using Darwen's services, where it receives money for every tonne of rubbish it takes. A pilot scheme is currently in operation.

By 2006, all councils have to recycle 20 per cent of household waste. Bolton recycles 8.1 per cent of its rubbish and is on track to reach the 2006 target. Last year residents threw away 146,392 tonnes of rubbish.