Wheelie bins on agenda again

11:48am Friday 18th July 2008

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WHEELIE bins could be introduced in Malvern as part of plans being drawn up for a single Worcestershire-wide rubbish collection service.

Rubbish collection is one of the areas being looked at for "closer two-tier working" between Worcestershire County Council and various district authorities, such as Malvern Hills.

When Wychavon introduces wheelie bins later this year Malvern Hills will be the only one of six district councils in Worcestershire not to use them.

But while MHDC leader Serena Croad would not rule out the introduction of wheelie bins, she insists it is a decision that can only be taken by MHDC itself.

"We would have to agree to any change, and at the moment it is not something we have discussed," she said. "In Malvern Hills we are discussing what we should be doing, because we need to refresh our fleet in a couple of years "The decision on whether to bring wheelie bins into Malvern will be taken by MHDC, and we are still taking that forward. I am not ruling anything out."

A standardised county-wide waste collection scheme could also mean a move to fortnightly collections.

One of the election pledges made by Cllr Croad's Conservative group was to fight to retain the current weekly system of refuse collection'.

However she said: "I don't want the county to think that we are ruling it out.

"If that is one of the areas they want to discuss then we will discuss it with them."

Further exploration of joint working was one of the agenda items for Worcestershire County Council's cabinet when it met yesterday (Thursday, July 18).