A CUT to bin collections will be piloted next month, before being rolled out across the district next year, council bosses have said.

Bradford Council has already decided to move to fortnightly general waste rounds from next year, in a bid to save £1m a year and boost recycling rates.

Now the move is to be piloted on some rounds in Wyke from October 6.

It will mean people in the ward who get their bins collected on a Thursday will start getting alternate collections of general waste one week and recycling waste the next.

But they will also be able to recycle more items, including yoghurt pots and drinks cartons, and put them all into the one grey bin.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Labour’s executive member for the environment, said she didn’t “think it will be too much of a struggle for people to adapt to the new system”.

She said: “Now that householders in the pilot scheme can dispose of all their recyclables in one bin, there should be no need for the general waste bin to fill up so quickly.

“Introducing the alternate bin collection system will encourage families to think more about recycling, hopefully leading to a dramatic reduction in the amount of waste going to expensive landfill and damaging the environment.”

But the opposition Conservatives, who opposed the cuts to bin collections, have voiced concerns.

Councillor Rebecca Poulsen, the group’s environment spokesman, said for many people this was one of the only council services they received.

She said: “They are getting 50 per cent less for their council tax at the end of the day.”

Cllr Poulsen said boosting recycling was important, but she feared people were still reeling from a host of other changes to bin rules and were not prepared for this.

She said she feared some households would throw excess rubbish “over a hedge or leave it down an alleyway” rather than take it to the tip, and that the cost of clear-ups would cancel out any savings.

Ward councillor David Warburton (Lab, Wyke) said the area had been chosen for the pilot because it had lots of different housing types.

He said the pilot would allow the council “to get a feel of it” and iron out any issues before the change was rolled out across the district.

He said: “I think it’s a move forward for us to help overall costs as well as encouraging people to do more recycling.”

Bradford is the last authority in West Yorkshire to switch from weekly to fortnightly general waste collections.