ST HELENS Council has taken a “bolder step” than other local authorities by proposing to use £3.5 million from a shared fund to reform its waste services, the chief executive of Merseyside Waste and Recycling Authority has said.

A taskforce met for the second time in seven days to discuss the council’s plans to introduce three-weekly bin collections, which are part of a wider revamp of waste services.

Carl Beer, chief executive of MRWA, was invited to the meeting after reviewing the council’s proposals.

He said the plans are “entirely consistent” with all the thinking that has been done to date in terms of how to increase recycling.

If approved, the proposals will be funded using money from MWRA’s waste development fund, a £29 million pot shared by Merseyside local authorities.

Mr Beer said the majority of the authorities that have used its share of the fund have done so to make its existing systems more efficient, but said most have seen its recycling rate “plateau”.

“So, what it doesn’t seem to have done with the councils that have spent their portion of the waste development fund, it hasn’t been used to change the systems in the way that you’re proposing,” he said.

“What they have done is keep the same system and used it to try to get greater efficiency into the system rather than fund a change to their collection arrangements.

“And it’s true to say recycling has stalled in a number of authorities across the region.

“I think St Helens is taking a bolder step than others have done with their waste development fund opportunity.

“Others haven’t taken that step.”

One of the main reasons the council is looking to change the service is to reach a recycling rate target of 50 per cent by 2020.

Mr Beer told the panel that evidence does support that moving to three-weekly bin collections does increase recycling.

“The evidence suggests it’s a bit of a chicken and an egg situation, this dilemma,” Mr Beer said.

“You either try to massively increase recycling and therefore there is nothing left in the residual bin – and that allows you to go to three-weekly – or you introduce three-weekly, which forces people to recycle and put more into their recycling bins than their food waste bins.

“And the two are almost indistinguishable from each other in terms of which works best.”

Cllr David Baines, chairman of overview and scrutiny commission and ward member for Windle, asked whether there was any evidence to support an increase in people using recycling centres as a result of a change to three-weekly collections.

Mr Beer replied: “When most councils went to fortnightly there was an increase in waste coming to recycling centres.

“We anticipate some increase because some people don’t want to wait three weeks.”

Wigan Council moved to a three-weekly residual bin collection in September last year due to a decline in recycling and a need to save funds.

Ian Burns, waste disposal and strategy manager for Wigan Council, said the authority has seen and increase of four to seven per cent in recycling from kerbside collections.

He also said the authority has seen a “massive” reduction in its residual waste collection.

Mr Burns added that the authority has seen a 35 per cent decrease in flytipping since September, although he said a number of other initiatives have likely contributed to the reduction.

He also said the authority has seen a huge increase in demand for bins, caddies and liners as well as an increase in recycling contamination.