Election spotlight falls on weekly bin battle

Dropping weekly bin collections has flared into a major issue for hundreds of thousands of voters at next week's local elections, the Daily Telegraph writes.

Concern about proposals to bring in fortnightly collections stretches from Guildford in the South to Berwick-upon-Tweed, on the border with Scotland.

Cuts in collections in a substantial amount of local authorities has provoked an angry response from council tax payers

Campaigning on the threat, which comes after revelations last week that weekly rounds have been ended for households in four out of 10 councils in England, stretches across party boundaries with Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat candidates pledging to reinstate the weekly collection.

Lord Bruce-Lockhart, chairman of Local the Government Association, said the elections had seen rising concern among council taxpayers. "It is more of an issue than it was," he added.

Doretta Cox, who runs the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collections, said: "It is becoming a very hot topic. In the last month it has just gone crazy. It should be a local election campaigning issue but unfortunately, because they are coming under Government pressure, it is not as important as it should be."

The Telegraph yesterday found that in 19 out of 45 councils the issue had become a major concern. The Liberal Democrats are fighting the proposals in Luton and Liverpool, where the party has branded proposals by Labour for fortnightly collections as a "Rats' Charter".