A COUNCIL has been named and shamed as having one of the worst recycling records in Britain.

But Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council has hit back, arguing the statistics are out of date and have dramatically improved.

Friends of the Earth, which is pushing for the Government to back an MP's private member's bill to force every local authority to provide a doorstep recycling scheme, named the council as recycling just two per cent of waste.

The figure compares to a national average of 12 per cent and a Government target of 18 per cent.

However, the council hit back saying that the Friends of the Earth figures are three years out of date and the authority now recycles up to eight per cent of all waste.

Mike Hardman, the council's assistant director for environmental services, said: "This is grossly unfair. We are doing a lot of good work to improve our recycling figures and there's a lot more in the pipeline."

Current initiatives include the borough-wide introduction of kerbside collections of wastepaper - the blue bag scheme - after a successful pilot in Saltburn, Redcar and Guisborough.

Mr Hardman said: "We are very surprised at the Friends of the Earth claim that we have not supplied our latest recycling figures. We would have been happy to co-operate with this type of survey.

"We do not deny we have come from a position of weakness, however we are gaining strength."

A spokesman for Friends of the Earth said its figures were taken from a Government website and, if the new council statistics were correct, the authority still lagged behind the national average.

Joan Ruddock's private member's bill was due to go before the House of Commons this week.