WASTE and recycling staff piled into a meeting of Richmondshire District Council to hear councillors vote against their pleas not to make their shifts more intensive.

The full council was asked to vote on recommendations to extend the refuse workers' hours from more than seven hours a day, five days a week, to more than nine hours a day, four days a week.

Staff had already appealed to members of the council’s corporate board but on Tuesday the Conservative-led council voted in favour of the new working hours and an increase of the types of materials residents are able to recycle.

Independent and Liberal Democrat councillors spoke strongly against the changes and unsuccessfully asked for a deferral on the decision so a full consultation with staff could take place.

Councillors were told the current waste contract with Yorwaste was coming to and end and efficiencies had to be made because of the falling value of recyclables.

Council director Colin Dales said: “It is not a recommendation we are making lightly but we need to look at the £1m of savings we have to make.”

Cllr Tony Duff said: “I’m strongly in support of our waste teams and make a point of going out to see how they are doing.

“But we have to face facts – if the income from recyclable products is falling we will be left with a considerable drop in income.

“If we do nothing the drop will be £99,000, but if we go to the new way of working it will only be an £8,000 drop in income.”

But Cllr Linda Curran said the council had not considered its staff.

She said: “Fairness has not come into this - couldn’t someone have spoken to staff and said, let’s work together?

“Their job is hard and this will only make it harder – the sickness rate in this department is already high because of sprains and strains and now they will work longer hours – how can we say that’s fair?”

Cllr William Heslop said he felt very uncomfortable about the proposal because of the way staff had been informed without consultation.

He added: “Any decision that we make now will be all of our responsibility.

“Let’s do this job properly and I’m sure we can achieve our objective.”

A majority of councillors voted in favour of the new system - which will allow residents to recycle more materials including cardboard, plastic and textiles.