PLANS to roll out weekly food waste collections in the Five Valleys are gathering pace after Stroud District Council’s environment committee unanimously backed a report recommending their introduction.

An opt-in service to deal with garden waste and a £15 charge for the collection of bulky items could also be introduced from July 2016 if the report is ratified by the full council on November 6.

Produced by SDC staff, the 15-page report contained a number of recommendations from a task and finish group made up of council officers and members that had been set-up to review the authority’s multi-services contract.

The £3.8 million contract, which covers everything from refuse and recycling to garden waste, street cleaning and grounds maintenance, has been delivered by the French multinational waste firm Veolia since 2001 but is due to expire at the end of June 2016.

Although that date is still two years away, work has already begun on drawing up the new contract and identifying potential providers, both within the public sector and outside in private industry.

In a bid to improve recycling rates, councillors are adamant that the contract should include weekly food waste collections as SDC is currently the only authority in the county which does not offer such a service.

According to council research, around 50 per cent of the district’s residents have indicated that they would take advantage of such a service if it was available to them.

However, its introduction could prove controversial as it would lead to black bin waste being collected fortnightly, rather than on a weekly basis as it is at present.

The rationale for the change is that with a food waste collection service in place, residents will have less rubbish to put in their black bins and therefore would not require them to be emptied so often.

Issuing every household in the district with a food caddie would result in an initial one-off cost of £250,000.

But moving to a fortnightly collection of residual waste would broadly offset the costs of introducing a weekly food waste collection, while SDC can also expect to receive a £200,000 incentive payment from the county council if it moves ahead with its plans, the report says.

District councillors also want the council's next multi-service contract to include an opt-in garden waste collection service.

The report, which was approved by the authority’s environment committee on Thursday night, says the council could expect such a service to be offered at a cost of around £36 per year to residents, in addition to a one-off charge to households of £20 to cover the purchase of the bins.

It also recommends introducing a £15 charge for the collection of bulky items, which would save the council the £165,000 cost it currently incurs in providing the service.

Although there are fears that implementing such a charge could lead to an increase in flytipping, officers reported there was no evidence from other authorities to suggest that was likely to be the case.