Bin strike talks between union bosses and council chiefs are “moving in the right direction”.

The first of a set of meetings was held to resolve the bin strikes in Brighton and Hove yesterday as the GMB union met with the city council.

A resolution is being sought to the ongoing pay grade dispute before strike action is due to hit the city streets again on Friday.

Mark Turner, GMB branch secretary, said talks are “still at a critical point”.

He said: “Thing are moving along in the right direction, but every proposal we get has to go before our members. “We will have to see how much of what the council offers us we can put forward to our members.

“On Thursday we will be putting forward their proposals for our members – we are moving in the right direction.”

Despite efforts to clean up the city, council workers have not yet been able to clear the backlog. Union members are calling for the 38 HGV drivers to be moved to a pay grade higher than six street cleaning staff who now earn the same as them.

A spokesman for the Brighton and Hove City Council said: “We're really sorry for the disruption the continuing industrial action is causing across the city.

“All crews are out on their scheduled rounds and will be prioritising scheduled areas that were missed last Tuesday.

“We are limited in our ability to provide additional resources to catch up any missed collections as the drivers continue to 'work to rule'. If your collection has been missed please leave your containers out and we will catch up when we can.

“We are continuing discussions with the GMB union and looking at a full service redesign to ensure we meet the needs of the city and to resolve work to rule.

“Again we apologise for the ongoing service disruption.”