Weekly bin collections look set to be dumped

BIN collections look set to go fortnightly in Hull as the cash-strapped council tries to save £1m.

Councillors are being asked to back the switch from weekly to fortnightly household waste collections, although it will cost jobs.

In a questionnaire last year 57 per cent of residents said they would back the change.

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Coun Phil Webster, who sits on the council’s Cabinet, said they had no option because of the scale of the cuts they were facing.

The council needs to save £33m over the next two financial years. He said blue bins for dry recyclable waste would continue to be collected on alternate weeks with the brown bins. He said: “Ultimately I think the route we will go down will be fortnightly, for blue and black. I don’t think we have any options. It is important to stress that there will be a larger or multiple bins available, they will be free.

“We have indications that the Government will keep top slicing (budgets) at five per cent a year - and we might be looking at that for eight years. We could end up in the crazy position where we could deliver virtually no services.”

At a meeting next Monday, councillors will also be asked to decide on charges for bulky items. Coun Webster said he’d support a proposal for the council to pick up the first collection free and put up charges for subsequent ones.

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In a report, the council’s corporate director of neighbourhood and families, Trish Dalby, said it would affect families with very young children who had nappies to get rid of.

She said assisted collections for elderly and infirm residents would remain, adding: “A clear programme of communications will summarise the results of the survey and explain the change to residents.”

Some areas in the East Riding which are piloting fortnightly collections of both general waste and recycling bins have seen recyling rates rise to 70 per cent. More than half of local authorities now have fortnightly general waste collections.