A FORMER Mayor of Worcester has called the city council's failure to empty the bins "embarrassing" - saying it cannot be allowed to happen again.

Councillor Lucy Hodgson, a former Conservative cabinet member, says the city has been left red-faced after nearly 700 collections were postponed yesterday amid staffing problems.

It came as:

- The council's Labour leadership officially scrapped a proposal to hand bin rounds, street sweeping and park maintenance to a private sector operator

- Councillor Adrian Gregson, the leader, threatened to report rival politicians to the standards watchdog if they carried on suggesting standards in the council's cleaner and greener department had fallen

- His opposition counterpart, Tory group leader Councillor Marc Bayliss, labelled it "a threat" and claimed his rival was at risk of breaching the Code of Conduct

Bin rounds were postponed in 22 streets and 678 homes yesterday due to a combination of staff holidays and one worker having an emergency.

The affected areas included St John's, Warndon Villages, Rainbow Hill, Cathedral and Nunnery, with the collections done this morning in a 'catch up' round.

Councillor Hodgson attended a meeting of the Labour cabinet to express her dismay last night - and reiterated her wish to see the service outsourced.

She said: "It's no fault of the staff, but we must have known somewhere down the line that there could be a pinch-point.

"It's an embarrassment for this council. Yes, the bins will get collected another day, but there is a knock-on effect."

She said it was "an example of what can happen" with such a small workforce, which currently stands at 34.

During the debate Councillor Bayliss told Labour cabinet members he was concerned about the finances without the outsourcing going ahead.

The Tory group lost power in May, and prior to that was working on proposals to outsource most of the council's cleaner and greener function under a deal aimed at saving £400,000 a year.

"It's £2 million over five years - that's a big chain on this council's financial cost base," he said.

We'll have to wait and see what Malvern and Wychavon save out of this contract."

But Councillor Gregson said there was "no acceptable evidence" of a £400,000 saving, before instructing his cabinet to boot it out for good.

"With regards the missed bin collections, it's not the first time bins have gone uncollected for one reason or another and it won't be the last," he said.

"But what we did was acted quickly and positively to the situation, what it actually demonstrates is our ability to be flexible - in my view that flexibility would be lost under a larger organisation, they wouldn't be able to react as fast."

He called the binmen "Worcester's ambassadors", adding: "I wouldn't want to put all their jobs at risk due to a dogma of privatisation."

He also said he'd "take action" over rival politicians saying service standards had fallen, to which Councillor Bayliss replied: "I take that to be a threat".

It means the jobs of 111 cleaner and greener council workers will stay in-house, but the leadership will need to find hefty savings another way.

The opposition Tory group had tried to get Labour to reconsider its stance via the scrutiny process.

Labour Councillor Lynn Denham said: "A motivated workforce is literally invaluable."