Lancashire’s councils being encouraged to ‘start emptying general household waste bins only once every three weeks’

Lancashire’s district councils are being encouraged to start emptying general household waste bins only once every three weeks, it has been claimed.

David Whipp, the leader of Pendle Borough Council, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that the cost-cutting idea was being “pushed quite hard” by Lancashire County Council.

The county authority is responsible for processing and disposing rubbish, but it is the duty of the dozen districts to collect it from the kerbside – and each makes their own arrangements for doing so.

Currently 11 of them – Burnley, Chorley, Fylde, Hyndburn, Lancaster, Pendle, Preston, Rossendale, South Ribble, West Lancashire and Wyre – empty bins reserved for non-recyclable waste every fortnight.   Collections of material that can be recycled are also made fortnightly – in an alternating pattern with the general rubbish.

Ribble Valley Borough Council is the only Lancashire authority still to collect non-recyclable  – or ‘residual’ – waste on a weekly basis.

The standalone councils in Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen also run alternating fortnightly collections, but Blackpool Council last month agreed to move to three-weekly general waste collection from next spring.

A letter sent last week from Lancashire County Council chief executive Mark Wynn to his counterparts at authorities across the county – which has been seen by the LDRS – asks for their “initial responses” to the “collection modelling” work that was shared with them in July.

It states that the county-led exercise identified “potential savings” of around £6m a year “through changes to collection methodologies and subsequent disposal costs”.

While the correspondence does not specifically refer to a shift to three-weekly collections, Cllr Whipp says that is exactly the arrangement that was put on the table during a recent county council presentation on the subject for Lancashire authority chiefs.

While he accepted that the change may eventually prove inevitable as a way of boosting recycling rates, the Lib Dem Pendle leader – who also sits on the opposition benches on the Reform UK-run county council – told the LDRS that this was “completely the wrong time” for it.  He added that the overhaul would prove “deeply unpopular” with residents.

In contrast, Mark Wynn’s letter suggested that now was just the time to make any changes ahead of the forthcoming government-ordered shake-up of Lancashire’s councils, which will see the current 15 authorities axed and replaced with just a handful of new ones – each of which will be responsible for both waste collection and disposal across large swathes of the county.

Acknowledging that implementing new collection arrangements may be “disruptive and sensitive”, the County Hall boss said they would “ultimately support a smoother transition” to the new council configurations and “help to introduce more consistency and standardisation in how services are delivered – accepting that there will always be some local subtleties”.

His letter added that while “a significant proportion” of the expected savings generated by any remodelling would be realised by the county council in its capacity as waste disposal authority, there was the potential “to explore how these benefits could be shared amongst all councils”.

In a statement to the LDRS, a spokesperson for Lancashire County Council said: “Changes to waste collections are being driven nationally, starting with the introduction of weekly food waste collections next year.

“Lancashire County Council has been working in partnership with districts and the unitary authorities to develop a new waste strategy for Lancashire to incorporate the national changes into existing waste services.

“Several options have been modelled all of which aim to improve recycling rates across the county and deliver value for money for residents. But ultimately it will be up to each waste collection authority to decide what works best for them.”

The government has ordered councils across the country to start collecting food waste from households from the end of March 2026.

As the LDRS revealed in February, Chorley Council said it was already considering changes to the frequency of its other waste collections as part of that new set-up – although none has since been announced.