THEY spent 15 hours talking rubbish.

Now city leaders have ended up with a messy compromise which staves off the threat of a council take-over by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.

The ruling Liberal Democrats have suspended any extension of their flagship green twin-bin scheme as the price for getting their budget through.

But the deal was also a climbdown by the Labour opposition which had been gunning to have the new rubbish scheme scrapped completely.

Party insiders have already expressed unease with the way their group leader June Bridle caved in.

A hit squad of government civil servants, answerable to Mr Prescott, could have been sent to run Southampton if civic chiefs had failed to agree a deal.

But it leaves a far from ideal situation with people in Bassett, Swaythling, Coxford and parts of Shirley continuing a pilot scheme of alternate recycling and household rubbish collections while everyone else will have their bins emptied weekly.

An independent review - due to report in September - will decide whether the twin-bin project will be rolled out across Southampton or ditched completely.

Meanwhile, city residents face an 8.4 per cent rise in their council tax bills.

The deal was finally struck early today following one of the longest budget setting meetings in Southampton's history.

Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative councillors had been in deadlock for 15 hours spread over two meetings.