A POSSIBLE introduction of a fortnightly collection of non-recyclable waste and wheeled bins would be unacceptable in Okehampton, town councillors have declared.

The town council's policy and resources committee has written to West Devon Borough Council with its views, following a consultation held during August and September on waste and recycling services.

Tenders for the new seven-year contract, which comes into action next April, are considering six different service options, including the status quo where non-recyclable waste is collected on a weekly basis.

In the survey, to which 1,300 residents of West Devon responded, 63% said yes to a fortnightly collection of non-recyclable waste if the council were to collect a wider range of materials for recycling every week, including food waste.

But Okehampton town councillor Charles Letchford has been critical of the consultation which a 'mere 2.5% of the population of West Devon' responded to and has claimed that some of the questions were phrased so as to produce the required answer.

'On the question of collecting non-recyclable waste, people were given a choice of changing to a fortnightly collection or to continue the weekly collection at a higher cost,' he said.

'People were also asked were there any practical reasons why they or their property could not have a wheeled bin. By a majority of 58% to 37% the answer was no. There was no opportunity to comment in general on wheeled bins.'

Mr Letchford said many of the streets in central Okehampton were terraced and the town would become 'a jungle of wheeled bins' if such a policy came into being.

'Apart from the visual aspect, wheeled bins on pavements present a hazardous obstacle and a ready target for vandalism by drunken or mindless yobs,' he said.

The emphasis from April next year will be on recycling more, cutting the amount of waste going to landfill and reducing the number of collection vehicles.

The borough council says it is looking at ways of giving all residents in West Devon 'the best possible service — at the lowest cost'.

Roadshows were held throughout the borough or people could comment on the council's website about the future of the services.

More than one in four said services could be improved by increasing the range of materials recycled, with plastic bottles at the top of the list, and drinks cartons and bulky card after that.

More than 80% wanted to have garden waste collected for composting but the majority of people did not want to pay extra for this service.

Six of out ten people rated the cleanliness of roads and pavements in West Devon as 'good' or 'excellent' but just under half felt that fly tipping and litter were 'significant' or 'major' problems. Some 59% rated the general cleanliness of public toilets in the borough as 'good' or 'excellent.'

Corporate director for the borough council Nick Payne said the council had been as open as it could be. It had entered a 'competitive dialogue process' whereby both the client and potential contractors and the public in this case were designing the service as it went through the tendering process.

The council was looking to provide a uniform service across the borough because at the present time the food waste, garden waste and cardboard collections happened in some areas and not others.

'Looking to the future the Government is raising the bar in terms of the level of recycling we have to achieve,' he said. 'We currently recycle 43/44% of waste in West Devon. Teignbridge and the South Hams are topping it at the moment in Devon with over 50% of waste recycled and they have alternate week wheeled bin collections in place.

'What we are trying to arrive at is an arrangement that is affordable but with an opportunity to improve our level of recycling performance.'