A blunder has led to thousands of residents being told to put out their refuse and recycling on the wrong day.

Leaflets were sent out across Brighton and Hove detailing the new collection days.

But 80% of householders were given the wrong date, leading to fears of rubbish piling up on the streets.

Brighton and Hove City Council apologised for the “human error”.

But a Labour councillor accused the Green-led council of “staggering incompetence”.

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Meanwhile the GMB union warned that the new collection regime would be a “catastrophe”.

Warren Morgan, leader of the Labour and Co-operative Group, said: “Yet again the Greens have exposed their own incompetence and inability to deliver the basic services residents need.

“They’ve wasted taxpayers’ money and run the risk of rubbish piling up on the streets as confused residents put their rubbish out for collection, only to find out the information provided was incorrect.”

A council spokeswoman said: “We’d like to apologise.

There is a mistake on some of the leaflets sent to residents about the new refuse collection days.

“We’ve put both refuse and recycling collection details on the same page for the first time and there are many different versions.

“Unfortunately we overlooked a printing error.

“We are really very sorry for a very human error and apologise for any confusion this may cause.”

New refuse collection days are correctly shown in large green writing, with changes following Christmas shown at the bottom – these are the correct days.

Smaller text that says ‘your refuse will be collected on Mondays throughout the year, apart from following Christmas and New Year’ is incorrect and only applies to people whose collection will usually be a Monday.

The changes will be introduced from October 7.

Mark Turner, of the GMB, said: “Our position is that the service plan will be a catastrophe.

“We’re not convinced the rounds set out are physically achievable within the contractual hours.

“We’ve not been consulted or involved in devising these routes and don’t support the changes.

“It won’t enhance the service, it will make it worse.

“We will work to our contractual arrangements but the fall-out could be some refuse won’t be picked up.”