PROPOSED monthly bin collections and charges for garden waste disposal have come under fire from councillors in York.

A raft of ideas to save cash and bring in more money for the council wrongfully treat waste services like bin collections, recycling, and household tips, as "easy targets" in the economy drives at City of York Council, one Conservative councillor has said.

Next week, the council's cabinet will be asked to consider proposals in the "Rewiring Public Services" programme, which needs to find £2 million per year in savings from a £16 million budget.

Since the papers were made public on Monday, the suggestions have been criticised by political opponents of the ruling Labour group, who now want to use a full meeting of the council before the crucial cabinet vote to block bin charges.

Cllr Tony Richardson has criticised the suggestions of charges for garden waste collections and a move to household bin collections once every three or four weeks, and is behind a motion to full council which asks for no extra household waste charges in this council or the next.

He said that instead of hitting residents with more fees the waste department could make changes like selling the compost it collects, or using waste wood to power wood chip boilers rather than paying a contractor to take it away, to cut costs and generate more income.

"People are sick of seeing the money they pay going up year on year.

"We should be making the best of what we have already got."

The Liberal Democrat group have too criticised the proposals, and warned that cuts to waste collections could just leave the city paying even higher bills for landfill tax.

"These cuts are likely to prove a false economy as they will lead to a further rise in landfill tax and increase the costs of dealing with fly-tipping.

“At a time when the council should be trying to reverse the fall in recycling rates which has occurred under Labour, it is actually planning to make it harder for residents to recycle through these green bin charges and wants to rule out our proposal for food waste collections.”

Cllr Dave Merrett, the cabinet member responsible to environmental services, said that while some of the suggestions the cabinet will not want to pursue, it would be foolish to rule anything out when the authority has had its budget from national Government slashed.

He added: “A number of the options officers are bringing forward are obviously not ones we want to consider, but to deliver a balanced budget consider then we must.

“We are going to consult with the public on all options and it would be foolish at this moment to shut down any option before we have done that.

We will need to see a very thorough analysis of any likely impact of all of the proposed changes and full public consultation before making a decision."

Cllr Merrett also called on the opposition leaders to take up the offer of a seat on the cabinet, so they can contribute to these decisions.