A waste firm stung by councillors' criticism says it is doing everything possible to make the service work.

Sita denied at a meeting last night that it is heading for a workers' strike or that it took on a contract as a "loss leader."

Both allegations have been made in the past week as the row over refuse collections around Brighton and Hove continues.

Last night councillors put regional director Paul Taylor and regional general manager Jim Richardson under pressure at a scrutiny board meeting.

They demanded to know how Sita could run a successful service with so few staff, what it was doing to improve pay and working hours for staff and how it was planning to sort out the chaotic collection service.

There have been thousands of complaints since Sita changed rotas in August after reaching agreement with unions on pay and conditions.

Mr Taylor told councillors: "We don't budget for loss-leading contracts."

He added: "Relations with the GMB union have not broken down. We have a 100 per cent dedication to make the contract work and I believe the union feels the same way."

Mr Richardson said the company had taken over a workforce with 26 different pay bands and many staff working different hours.

It had standardised pay and conditions with no one on less money than before and had increased the number of employees from 201 to 225.

Mr Richardson said 21 rounds were reorganised into 18 and special teams were put in to provide back-up where rounds were not completed.

But he said teething troubles had proved much greater than expected. At one time there were 2,000 complaint calls a day but this figure has now fallen to 100.

Mr Richardson said the rounds were being monitored to make sure they were of even size. As a result, small changes would be made early in October. Any customers with a change of collection day would be notified. He added: "By then, drivers and crews will be familiar with the routes and missed bags should no longer occur.

"We want to do everything possible to make it work. We will get there."

But councillors were not completely convinced. Coun Christine Simpson, who chairs the scrutiny board, said: "There are still more complaints than we would like.

"But we are making progress. Most of the major problems have been resolved."

Environment director Alan McCarthy said damages had been applied to Sita under the terms of the contract.

Sita leaders will be called back to the next meeting of the board on October 12 to discuss what progress has been made.

At a meeting on Wednesday night, union members decided to give Sita a fortnight to sort out pay and workload problems before deciding on industrial action.