LAWRENCE — Just a week before the start of a new automated trash collection program, the City Council is calling on Mayor Michael Sullivan to stop it.

In what City Councilor Patrick Blanchette called a "symbolic vote," councilors voted unanimously last night to send a letter to Sullivan demanding that he suspend the program, which is already generating heavy criticism from residents.

"I really hope the mayor is listening to me and that he really stops this process," Councilor Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez said.

"If this letter is insufficient, we really should go to court to get an injunction," she said.

Under the Allied Waste program, which is set to begin Nov. 11 and to be phased in throughout the city, each household will receive a specially designed 65-gallon cart, which will be lifted into trucks by an automated arm.

Sullivan has said the city will save a minimum of $500,000 because there will be more recycling and less money paid to Covanta to incinerate the trash.

Sullivan said efforts are under way to educate residents about the program. That includes an eight-minute video to air on community television, educational fliers mailed to 11,000 homes, and information provided to neighborhood associations. The city also hired a recycling coordinator, Norm Nimmo.

In addition to public concerns that residents aren't prepared to switch to the new program, some are concerned that it's another cost increase in government services they can't afford.

Alvarez-Rodriguez said she is opposed to a new program that would "go into the pockets of people barely making ends meet" while noting Lawrence is "the 13th poorest city in the nation."

Several residents spoke in opposition to the program during the public participation session of the meeting.

Former City Councilor Joseph Quartarone suggested the program might work "great in a residential neighborhood," but questioned whether it would work in a congested neighborhood with multifamily homes and narrow streets.

In a letter to the council, newly elected School Committee member Frank Bonet called the program an unofficial tax increase.

"Let's not fool ourselves or the taxpayer any longer, Mr. DPW Director. This had absolutely nothing to do with the budget," Bonet wrote.