A CHANGE in bin collection dates caused confusion at the weekend.

Many people did not realise rubbish would be collected two days early - on Saturday instead of yesterday - so failed to put out their bins.

Darlington Borough Council told people about the Easter collection scheduless in its Town Crier magazine and a newspaper advertisement.

But a council spokeswoman said yesterday it had been forced to carry out a "mopping-up exercise" yesterday, with refuse workers returning to the same streets they visited on Saturday.

"We delivered 6,500 copies of the Town Crier on Friday to the areas which were affected by the changes and it was flagged up on the front of the magazine. But obviously not everyone read the magazine in that time," she said.

Areas affected included Faverdale, Brinkburn and Branksome.

For the rest of this week, refuse workers will collect a day earlier than normal. Next week, collections will be a day late. They will return to normal on Monday, April 19.