RESIDENTS of Okehampton and surrounding villages are set for cleaner streets, thanks to a new service which will cut the amount of waste going to landfill and reduce the number of collection vehicles.

And town councillors are delighted that 'wheelie bins' are not part of the proposed service.

The scheme, which will help improve recycling and refuse collections, as well as street cleaning in and around the town, was discussed at a meeting of Okehampton Town Council.

The West Devon Borough Council scheme will see a new recycling and refuse collection service which will include:

l A weekly food waste collection for everyone

l A weekly upgraded recycling service, which will include plastic bottles

l Garden waste and bulky card collected on alternating weeks

l Residual waste not being collected through the food and recycling waste, to be in a plastic sack collection.

Borough council corporate director Nick Payne, who attended the meeting to discuss the new service, said a lot of time and effort had gone into the new policy: 'We have tried to make sure that what we have ended up with is a positive step forward.

'Our recycling rate is still very good compared to many areas of the country.

'We've got to change the service in order to recover our performance and improve.

'If we don't achieve a process of continued improvement on the recycling rates, there will be a penalty for residents through the landfill tax — so we need to minimise the waste going to landfill.'

Mr Payne told town councillors that the policy was a direct outcome of the consultation held last year by the borough council.

'The consultation started mid August and ran through to the end of September.

'We believe that the results are substantially reflected in the decisions we have taken.'

Mr Payne said he believed the new service would save residents money in the long run.

'All of this is going to be achieved with a significant saving on the existing contract and we are looking at fairly substantial improvements in the performance of the service at a lower cost, year on year.

'The vast majority of people will be encouraged to recycle more because most of what they are putting out is being collected weekly, so hopefully, on average, waste will go down.'

The new policy will result in a reduction of vehicle movement and help with CO2 emissions.

Town Cllr Charles Letchford said he was happy with the new policy: 'I think I speak for all the councillors when I say I am just delighted that there are going to be no wheelie bins — they were our biggest concern.

'I have no objection to the new policy and look forward to see if it falls into place.'

Last November, when he expressed opposition to any proposal for wheelie bins, Cllr 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.

Cllr Kay Bickley said: 'I am concerned about the number of containers that may be left outside people's houses — it might result in quite a few containers all in one space.

'I do, however, feel that West Devon Borough Council has listened to what we have asked about not having wheelie bins and I think the new policy will achieve what it hopes to.

'The fact that there will also be a plastic collection is good because that is what people have asked for.'

The new contract for the waste management policy will start on Thursday, April 1. It will then be rolled out in a series of phases, which will be worked out with a new contractor, yet to be announced.