A COUNCIL has ended a four-week feud over rubbish in West Auckland.

Residents in Copeland Road and Edith Terrace had not had their wheelie bins emptied for a month after refusing to comply with Wear Valley District Council's orders to leave them at the end of their street.

They want the refuse to be collected from their doors because they claim leaving the wheelie bins at the end of the street blocks access.

Householders said they would not back down until the council collected the bins from their homes.

The council said it would cost too much in manpower to push wheelie bins from each door to the collection point, but yesterday Max Coleby, the council's acting director of community services, offered villagers an olive branch.

He said: "If they don't want to leave the wheelie bins at the gable ends, they can store their black bags in the wheelie bins, then on collection day leave the bags outside their doors for collection.

"We think that's reasonable. They're a canny set of people, but there's a point where the council has to act reasonably and we think we have done that."

The council will also clear the backlog of rubbish during the next collection.

Resident Gary Russell said: "It seems a bit silly going back to black big bags. I'd still rather have wheelie bins if used properly. They've gone to all this hassle and money and now they're going back to using black bags. We just want our rubbish cleared."