Warning: bin collections could be cut to one a month

Just when you thought your bin collection service couldn't get any worse, one council leader is warning that cuts to funding are going to have a knock-on effect on services. It could mean that your bins will be left to fester, smell, and attract rodents for a full month before being collected.

Council funding is expected to be cut by £2.6 billion next year as part of wider targets for cuts. The Daily Mail reported comments from Gary Porter, leader of the Conservative Group of the Local Government Association, who said that councils were already under huge financial pressure, and more cuts would have a knock-on effect on services. He said: "Already some of our members are talking about emptying the dustbins once every four weeks. People will notice that."

Three weeks

Some councils have already moved to less frequent collections. Fortnightly is now by far the most common interval - with only 17 councils offering weekly collections: that's just 6% of councils. This is despite the fact that the Conservatives put a return to weekly collections in their election manifesto in 2010.

Gwynedd in Wales introduced three-weekly collections for 15,000 homes in October this year, and in the same month Bury council made the same change. The measure is effective. Gwynedd recently said the average home was throwing away 22% less after the collections were made less frequent. Meanwhile, in Bury, recycling increased 8%.

Monthly

Monthly collections have not been adopted anywhere just yet. They have been trialled in Banbridge in County Down, and were such a success on the routes that the eight month trial was extended in September this year. However, Banbridge is set to be amalgamated into a wider authority in April, and there is no support for widening or extending the scheme after that. The question has also been discussed in Cardiff, although it has not been implemented yet.

For the councils it's an obvious way to save cash, because not only does it mean they can pay waste companies less to make fewer collections, it also puts people off throwing things away (because they don't want them stinking out their bins for the next three weeks), so they have to pay less for the rubbish they send to landfill too.

However, for homeowners, waste collection is one of the most visible signs of their council tax being spent on a service they actually use themselves, so cutting the service again is highly unlikely to be met with much enthusiasm.

The Taxpayers' Alliance has called the proposals 'barmy' - adding that it has health concerns and worries about fly tipping. It adds that taxpayers have a right to expect basic services like regular rubbish collections, and has pledged to campaign against any council that considers monthly collections.

But what do you think? Do you need your rubbish picked up so often? Let us know in the comments.

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