PLANS to reduce green bin collections from a two to three-week rota have been scrapped.

All general waste and green bin collections in the borough were set to move to a three-week rota following Wigan Council's budget announcement on March 1 in a bid to save the cash-strapped authority £2 million a year and improve recycling rates.

The decision was made despite results of a public consultation on the budget proposals showing that the majority of residents were not in favour of moving from the current fortnightly bin collections.

But the council says it is listening to residents and after reviewing budget feedback has tweaked its plans so that only brown, blue and black bin collections will move to a three-week rota, from September 25.

Green bins, for garden and food waste, will continue to be collected every fortnight.

Karl Battersby, director for economy and environment at the council, said: “We want to thank people for taking the time to comment on the original plans.

"We have listened to the suggestions and made changes based on this feedback, including a more frequent blue bin collection, a less frequent brown bin collection and reinstating the green bin to a two-weekly collection all year round to help residents manage their food waste better."

The council's original plan was to suspend the green bin from November to March each year.

This has now been shelved due to the feedback received.

The council has pledged to support residents with the changes and will be issuing an information pack to every household with simple information about what can and cannot be recycled.

Residents can order blue, brown or green recycling bins if they need them and the council is also offering waste audits to larger households that think they will struggle.

Mr Battersby added: “We are going to be flexible with people and help them through the initial few months when the collections change.

“We don’t want people panicking that they won’t have a collection for six weeks if they miss their collection.

"We will be relaxing our missed bin policy and being fair with our residents to help them as much as possible."

The council says money saved from the changes will protect essential frontline services and boost its recycling rate from 43 to 50 per cent, avoiding significant fines.

"The Deal is all about us working together to deliver local services in these challenging times," said Mr Battersby.

"These changes focus on delivering our financial savings and boosting our recycling rate."

The council has also addressed concerns from residents about fly tipping, saying it will take a zero tolerance approach and clamp down on repeat offenders.

“We know people raised worries about an increase in fly tipping when the collections change," Mr Battersby said.

"Evidence from other councils shows this hasn’t happened but we have listened to people and will be cracking down on fly tippers.

“Our new enforcement and education team are being deployed across the borough to investigate fly tipping and track down offenders.

"We are also looking at investing in better technology, including body cameras for our staff.

"We need people to keep reporting to us so we make sure we can catch and prosecute offenders.”

New calendars will be sent to every household in the summer explaining their new collections.

Residents can also go online to find out more about the changes at wigan.gov.uk/mybincollection.