THOUSANDS of homes across the city could see their bin collections change from weekly to fortnightly.

The controversial move is one of a number of proposals aimed at saving cash-strapped Exeter City Council money and driving up recycling rates.

Under the proposals, around 13,000 properties which currently enjoy weekly rubbish collections would see their collections go biweekly.

Other suggestions include moving collections from back alleys to the front of properties and changing to a four-day week for refuse collectors.

Affected areas are likely to include St David’s, Newtown, Polsloe, St James, St Thomas, Heavitree and, possibly, Topsham.

Residents will be consulted over the changes but the announcement has already met with mixed reactions from householders and councillors.

But council bosses say the changes could save them around £100,000 a year and would encourage people to recycle more.

Mike Trim, head of the city council’s cleansing services, said: “Exeter has around 50,000 homes, of which 32,000 are already on a biweekly collection.

“There are 13,000 of the 18,000 on weekly collections that are of a similar size and type of property to those on biweekly collections.

“Financially, it stacks up and would provide us with a considerable saving.

“And environmentally, it makes sense as there would be less movement of large refuse vehicles.

“Statistics show that people on a weekly collection produce 22 per cent more waste so for the taxpayer it would make sense if less rubbish was going to landfill.”

He added that large households could request an additional bin to hold their waste.

Kelvin Lacy, chairman of St David’s Neighbourhood Partnership, said: “What on earth are people supposed to do with this material for an extra week?

“I can’t imagine this being well received by many residents.”

St Thomas resident Vera Batchelor said she was “disgusted” with the idea.

She said: “What the devil are we paying council taxes for if they aren’t going to collect our rubbish every week?

“We’re going to get vermin and all sorts of health problems.”

St Thomas councillor, Rob Hannaford, said: “If local residents in St Thomas send a clear message back that they don’t want these changes I will certainly not be supporting it.

“Although it’s understandable that the council may want to save money, we must remember that local people are still using their hard-earned cash to pay council tax and they are entitled to expect a decent service.”

The council say that phasing out back alley collections will save money and reduce fly-tipping.

But Rachel Lyons, chairman of the Polsloe Community Association, said: “My first impressions of this is that it won’t work because of the number of multiple occupancy houses in the area.

“People continuously chuck rubbish over their garden wall into the back alley.

“We already have lots of problems with waste in this area and I can see this throwing up more problems.”

Maurice Spurway, of Exeter’s Friends of the Earth, welcomed the proposed changes.

“I think, increasingly, biweekly collections are going to be a good thing,”  said Mr Spurway.

“The city council now needs to look to implementing food waste collections as one of the main problems with fortnightly collections is that food in the bins starts to smell.”

Kevin Mitchell, lead councillor for environment and leisure, said: “If we can collect less waste and recycle more, that brings the cost of collections down as well as helping the environment.”

The proposed changes will be the subject of a community forum at the city’s Guildhall at 2.30pm on Thursday, June 25.