CONFUSED residents have made nearly 100,000 calls to a Bolton Council helpline which was set up to answer queries about controversial new rubbish collection plans.

And around 800 official complaints have been lodged by people unhappy with new system, figures obtained by the Bolton Evening News have revealed.

The statistics are the lastest blow for the council, which has come under fire from residents since making the decision to empty regular grey wheelie bins fortnightly instead of weekly.

Astley Bridge Conservative councillor Stuart Lever, who is campaigning for the return of a weekly service, said the complaints were "the tip of the iceberg.

He added: "There is widespread discontent and disquiet over this scheme.

"People are extremely unhappy about the change to their service and the council needs to realise that it is never going to work.

"For every person who got through with their complaint, there will be others who havent because of problems with the helpline, and other people who think that it is not even worth bothering to complain."

The 100,000 helpline calls equate to more than one for every home affected by the alternate collection scheme.

And around 23 per cent of calls made to one recycling helpline were not answered by staff, according to town hall figures.

More than 95,000 homes are now covered by the collection regime, with another 25,000 due to come on board in the near future.

In June, homes in western parts of the borough became the first to take part.

Homes in northern areas were next to join last month, and town hall bosses say a date is due to be announced for phase three when another 25,000 homes in parts of Halliwell, Smithills, Crompton, Heaton and The Haulgh will switch to an alternate collection.

The scheme was introduced to help the council meet strict Government recycling targets and avoid fines of up to £1.5 million.

Homes have been issued with recycling containers, such as green boxes for bottles and cans, sacks for waste paper and green bins for vegetable and garden waste, which are picked up fortnightly. Grey bins are collected on the alternate weeks.

Cllr Roger Hayes, the Liberal Democrat executive member for environmental services, has accused Cllr Lever of "over-stating" objections to the scheme.

He said: "People have taken a lot of time to get used to it, but that is not surprising because this is the biggest change to the waste collections scheme we have seen since wheelie bins were introduced.

"This amount of complaints isnt something we take lightly, but overall there are only one or two issues we are not happy with."