Fortnightly bin collections to continue in Warwick district

WEEKLY bin collections will not return in Warwick district - despite a Government incentive to bring them back.

Warwick District Council will become one of the Tory-led councils declining to take some of the £250m to reinstate weekly rounds offered by communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles MP, who has described them as a “basic right”.

But the man in charge of rubbish collection in neighbouring Stratford district says it is too early to say whether his authority will go back.

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Both Warwick and Stratford districts have alternate fortnightly collections of rubbish and recycling and garden waste, with weekly sack collections in streets that cannot have wheelie bins.

Kitchen waste can be collected each week if it is wrapped up inside the green wheelie bin.

Cllr Dave Shilton, who heads Warwick District Council’s neighbourhood services department, said there were no plans to revert to weekly collections.

He said: “We’ve spent that much money on the bins now and the programme is rolling on. We’re planning to introduce more on the alternate weekly collections.”

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Warwick district sends the lowest volume of rubbish to landfill in the county, and Cllr Shilton insisted that recycling generated a “substantial” amount of income for the council and that sending rubbish to landfill generated methane, a greenhouse gas, adding that red box collections meant materials were already “clean” and did not need sorting at the tip.

He added: “It would be wasting so much money and have a very detrimental impact to go back and put everything just in one bin and go to the tip.

“The Government comes out with these things and yes, we are Conservatives but our first aim is to get this right so it suits our district.”

Speaking for Stratford District Council, which collects rubbish from Southam, Wellesbourne and Kineton and nearby villages, Cllr Mike Brain (Con, Quinton) said it was not yet clear what was on offer.

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He said Stratford currently provided an “excellent and efficent” low-cost service that residents were happy with, and was in the top ten councils in the country for recycling.

He added: “We will review any scheme when it is announced.”