RECYCLING staff are being sent out in pairs for their own safety after a council worker was attacked as anger over changes to the community skip service exploded into violence.

The worker was attacked while manning the new recycling skip in Bradford on Avon railway station car park, and after telling a man he could not dump his household waste into it.

The collector was shoved by the man and smashed his head on the metal skip.

He used his radio to call for help from colleagues at West Wiltshire District Council. He is now recovering at home.

Council spokesman Will Godfrey said staff manning the new mobile recycling service were now being sent out in pairs.

He said: "The safety of our staff is paramount, and we are determined that we will not put our staff into any situation where they could be in danger."

He said the incident had left the worker badly shaken and had upset his colleagues.

He said: "We know there have been teething problems and that some people do have concerns about the changes, but you don't expect something like this to happen. We certainly didn't expect someone to be physically assaulted while doing their job.

"If people do have concerns there are ways of expressing them, rather than taking it out in violence against one of our workers."

The popular community skip service, which used to take all waste, has been replaced with mobile recycling skips that separate refuse into garden waste, metals and textiles. Household waste is no longer accepted.

The worker was too shocked to take down his attacker's car registration number, and the council is appealing for any witnesses to the incident on October 10 to come forward.

Other workers also confirmed that they had been threatened since the new skip system was brought in.