Cheshire East Council says collecting black bins every three weeks instead of fortnightly may be the only way it can meet its future legal requirement to introduce weekly food waste pick-ups.

Tom Shuttleworth, interim director of environment and neighbourhoods, told councillors it didn’t look as if the funding being offered [under legislation from the previous government] to implement the new weekly food waste collection scheme in 2026, would cover the council’s costs.

He said changing to a three-weekly collection at the same time for household waste black bins would help fund it.

The Conservatives argued at yesterday’s (Thursday) meeting of the environment and communities committee, the council was jumping the gun in including the three-weekly black bin proposal in with the public consultation on the weekly food waste collection.

This is because government guidelines suggest two-weekly black bin collections could become mandatory.

They also questioned why the three-weekly option was the only one being put forward in the recommendations for consultation, when officers had identified three other options, two of which included keeping fortnightly collections.

Cllr Becky Posnett (Con) said: “If the officers … have come to the decision that we are going to a three-weekly bin collection… who’s running the council?

“Why is there only one recommendation made it through for us to consider today?”

Cllr Mary Brooks (Lab) said that was what experienced officers were for – to bring forward recommendations.

“This is also mitigating the financial risk to the council and we really need to be mindful of that,” said Cllr Brooks.

Cllr Ashley Farrall (Lab) said the council had had the weekly food waste collections imposed on it by the previous government without adequate funding to implement it.

“That’s come at the expense of the council, our residents and our communities,” he said.

“We don’t want to do three-weekly collections but we have to find the money from somewhere.”

Conservative group leader Janet Clowes referred to a concern raised earlier in the meeting by a member of the public about three-weekly collections and the potential health implications and hazards for elderly and disabled people who had to dispose of bulky incontinence products.

Cllr Chris O’Leary (Con) said three-weekly collections would have a disproportionate impact on rural communities, because if bins were missed in those areas they weren’t picked up until the next scheduled collection date.

This would mean rubbish sitting in black bins for six weeks.

Committee chair Cllr Mick Warren (Ind) stressed councillors were only voting on proposals to go out to public consultation, they were not voting on implementing any new scheme.

The committee agreed unanimously to consult with the public on the implementation of a weekly food waste collection.

This would involve kerbside collection of the food waste in 23L caddies.

Eight councillors voted in favour of consulting on the possible introduction of a three-weekly black bin collection, four voted against and one abstained, so this was also approved.