WEEKLY food waste collections will be rolled out to 7,000 more Pendle homes, if councillors agree to the proposed expansion.

Binmen have been collecting waste placed in five-litre kitchen ‘caddies’ at 7,000 Pendle homes for just over a year.

When the pioneering scheme was launched, £100,000 was set aside to fund a subsequent expansion.

But Conservative councillors on Pendle’s executive this year rejected a proposal to provide the service to another 7,000 properties.

Now Pendle’s Liberal Democrats – the borough’s opposition party – are again proposing that the scheme is rolled out further.

Coun John David, Lib Dem leader, said: “The scheme is a huge hit with residents in the areas getting weekly collections.

“Doubling the number of homes benefiting from the service is an obvious step.

“At budget time, my group succeeded in getting money set aside to expand the scheme.

"Now the Government is providing £10 million nationally for weekly food waste projects.

“There is now no excuse for not getting on and bringing more properties into the weekly waste scheme.

“There’s a massive demand from residents for the council to deal more effectively with perishable waste.

"This is a good way of doing that, improving recycling and cutting damaging greenhouse gasses too.

"I’m hoping that our proposal will get unanimous agreement when we discuss it next week.”

Coun David’s proposal will be debated at Pendle full council on Thursday.