by Alex Claridge

aclaridge@thekmgroup.co.uk

The city council is to replace its current fortnightly bin collection system with one in which food waste is collected every week.

It plans to introduce the system in 2013 when it will ditch its present system of collecting clear bags of recyclable waste one week and non-recyclable rubbish the next.

It will also be introducing a fortnightly doorstep glass collection for the first time.

The decision comes in the aftermath of Communities Secretary Eric Pickles’ announcement that he would set up a £250m incentive scheme to restore weekly bin collections.

People in Canterbury are among the 18 million in the UK who use the fortnightly system, voted for by the council in 2004 and introduced in 2005.

The new system will see food waste collected every week, recyclable waste collected once every fortnight and then non-recyclable non-food waste such as nappies also collected every fortnight.

No decision has yet been made on the types of receptacle to be used, but initial research has shown people prefer containers to plastic sacks.

City council spokesman Steve James said: "It should mean people do not have this problem of smelly waste in their houses for too long.

"Dover and Shepway councils use the model we will introduce and it’s a good way of encouraging people to recycle."

But Cllr Rosemary Doyle, is the council’s executive member for the environment, admits it is unclear yet whether Canterbury will benefit from the incentive scheme.

She said: "We are making sure we get the best possible deal for Canterbury. Certainly, the aim is to pick up all that smelly food waste once a week."

Lib Dem group leader Alex Perkins was leader of the council when it introduced the present system.

Speaking about the proposed new system, he said: "It seems a shame in that they are taking something which works and making it more complicated

"This comes at a time when they are making people redundant and spending £250 million on it. It’s like trying to fix something that’s not broken."

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