BIN collections will still be missed despite the city council pledging more funding, according to a union.

GMB, representing Cityclean refuse and street-cleaning workers, said Brighton and Hove’s plans to employ more staff will still leave the service understaffed and bin lorries unmanned.

It comes after city council chief executive Geoff Raw met with union chiefs for crunch talks last week, and as rubbish piles up across the city.

The GMB wanted 10 extra members of staff but the council said they could only have four.

GMB branch secretary Mark Turner said the pledge for the four extra staff will only plug a gap for a communal bin lorry and will not address the shortfall for Cityclean’s commercial waste arm.

He said: “We have had a number of meetings with the council and from there a proposal came to deal with the shortfall of staff. The shortfall has only been partly met. They are reluctant to employ more staff because management put together a budget for the new commercial and green waste service, but they never budget staff into proposals. “So they are stealing and borrowing staff from the frontline, and as a consequence bin vehicles have not gone out in favour of their commercial venture.”

The GMB said ten more staff are needed to run bin collections for residents and Cityclean’s commercial paid-for waste collection.

The union claims refuge workers and street cleaners are forced to clean up missed waste from previous days, adding to workload.

Mr Turner said there is still the threat of industrial action. He added: “Council management is disrupting the service, so our members don’t need to go on strike. The critical point will be if additional pressure is put on our members by management to carry out tasks beyond what is physically possible, then start taking action against our members.”

Strikes last hit the city in 2013 and 2014. The city council’s proposal will be discussed in October.

Councillor Gill Mitchell chairwoman of the council’s environment committee, said: “We have experienced service problems over the last few weeks and I apologise to those residents affected. Cityclean is a service that is expanding and we need to ensure that numbers of staff keep up with the pace of these changes. As part of this the views of the Cityclean crews working on the ground are vital. We are listening to their concerns and are working together to reach a solution. We will be bringing a proposal in relation to Cityclean resourcing as part of a finance report to committee next month.”