Kerrier district council pulled out all the stops to improve its refuse collection over the Christmas holidays following a debacle last year when rubbish littered the streets for days on end.

After promising one year ago to never let the situation get that bad again, Kerrier came up trumps this year, ensuring as many people as possible knew of collection dates.

Anyone with a query could also contact the authority over the holiday period, unlike last year when the offices in Dolcoath Avenue closed down until January 2.

Andy Mead, Kerrier's direct services manager even took calls on Christmas Day after the council office's reception phone was diverted to his mobile.

"I think it was a lot better," said Mr Mead. "There were changes on last year - we advertised it more, we made sure that the answer service was on which wasn't last year, the offices were manned every day but Christmas and Boxing Day and we had a stand-by service. Our complaint level was a lot less than last year, we had one person a little bit upset, but 99 per cent were very satisfied."

One year ago the main shopping areas of Camborne and Redruth were dubbed "streets of shame" by the Packet after mountains of bin bags were left to accumulate on the pavements and shop doorways.

In its January 1 edition, the Packet ran photographs showing the extent to which rubbish had built up, in front gardens, supermarket car parks and housing estates as some areas waited for almost three weeks to have rubbish taken away.

Unsure of collection dates, many people telephoned Kerrier council offices frantically seeking information as to when to put their rubbish out, only to find the phones unmanned.

At the time senior Kerrier councillor Mike Clayton called the situation "unacceptable" and promised it would never be allowed to happen again.

Last week, thanks to concerted efforts by the council to change their system and fully inform the public of collection dates, the majority of refuse was put out at the correct times.

The collection dates were advertised in newspapers including the Packet, at all post offices, on supermarket notice boards, parish council notice boards, the Kerrier council website and in its own newsletter, Coast to Coast.

"It has been a good year," said Mr Mead. "We did receive a lot of phone calls, one we would classify as a complaint, but the rest were just general enquiries, and they either missed the advert or weren't totally sure about the Friday collection. The main switchboard at Kerrier had the same sort of result," he said.

"We had a few people that missed the collection and rather than make them wait a week we diverted another cart to help them out."

Mr Mead said trade waste was also far less of a problem with less fly tipping. "I think we got it right," he said.

Mr Clayton who heads the council committee responsible for rubbish collection said: "It's got to be better than last year. The proof of the pudding ought to be no complaints."

He accepted there had been problems last year with making people aware of refuse collection dates, but promised people it would "not happen again."