A TOTAL of £2million is set to be spent by Hyndburn Council to encourage people to recycle more.

Council leader Cllr Miles Parkinson has confirmed that as of summer 2018, the borough will switch to a full wheelie bin service for recycling which will see two additional bins for each of the 35,000 households.

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The move comes as the waste collection cost-sharing agreement with Lancashire County Council will come to an end next year.

The bins will replace the blue and white sack system used for recycling. Some residents are unhappy that in high winds the items for recycling get blown all over the street.

The change will use government grant money, but Cllr Parkinson believes that it will enable the council to provide improvements to recycling people have been requesting.

He said: “To purchase the necessary wagons to fit down back alleys and supply two new bins to every house in the borough will cost in excess of £2million.

“This will use up our capital grant from the government for an entire year but we feel that it will enable us to provide the recycling collections that residents have been requesting for a long time and enable us to streamline the service.”

Cabinet member for waste services Cllr Paul Cox has said that the move will bring an ‘easier’ system for residents.

He said: “Hyndburn receives a substantial income from separated recycling but during 2018 our grant agreement with Lancashire County Council will end and Hyndburn Council will be around £800,000 per year worse off.

“At that point we will switch to combined recycling and provide an easier system for residents than the one we have now.”

Cllr Peter Britcliffe said the system should have been implemented sooner.

He said: “It’s a move I am definitely in support of and I’m glad they have finally taken some action, but in my opinion it should have happened three years ago when they revamped the system.

“It makes the revamp then look like a waste of money.”

However Cllr Parkinson has defended the time scale and said the work three years ago was not a revamp, but a replacement of wagons.

He said: “They had come to the end of their operational lifespan and at that time we did not know that the cost-sharing agreement would be coming to an end in 2018.”

The new system will be introduced next year.