PLANS for fortnightly bin collections, which had been put on hold until after the general election, have been resurrected.

Wiltshire Council is now asking householders for their views.

The aim is to ‘harmonise’ the service across all four districts that now come under the unitary authority, and at the same time to encourage people to recycle more.

At present Salisbury and south Wiltshire residents get a better deal in terms of household rubbish and recycling collections than the rest of the county.

The proposal is that the council continues the fortnightly collection of black boxes, plastic bottles and cardboard, with an optional free fortnightly collection of garden waste But it says it can only afford to introduce these services to other parts of Wiltshire by reducing the frequency of non-recyclable rubbish collection to every two weeks.

Toby Sturgis, cabinet member for waste, said: “We want people to recycle as much as possible in Wiltshire.

“Our aim is to provide a first-class recycling service no matter where residents live in the county and increase our current recycling rate from 40.5 per cent to over 50 per cent.

“It is vital that we reduce the amount of rubbish going to landfill sites, as space is at a premium and we must reduce the gas emissions and environmental impact these sites have on our county.

“The impact of not reducing the amount of rubbish will be on the landfill taxes, which will increase from £12.5million to £17million by 2015.”

People can comment by completing an online questionnaire at www.wiltshire.gov.uk/waste. Or they can pick up a paper copy of the questionnaire from council offices, libraries and area board meetings They can also make their views known at a roadshow which will visit Salisbury Market Place on Tuesday (June 29) from 10am to 2pm.