WHEELIE bins could soon be introduced across Ryedale if a planned pilot scheme is given the green light.

Councillors were so impressed with the wheelie bin service run at Skipton that they are recommending to the next full meeting of Ryedale District Council that a pilot scheme is carried out in Ryedale.

Councillor Wilf Garbutt, who represents Thornton-le-Dale on the council, admits he was a sceptic before going for the visit to Skipton.

"It was well worth the trip," he said.

"I certainly had reservations about changing before I went.

"But now I believe it would be good to do our own pilot scheme in a small area of Ryedale and see how it goes.

"While in Skipton I had a word with quite a few local residents. Out of the five or six I spoke to four said they definitely wouldn't go back to bin bags and the others didn't have any real opinions either way. "After the scheme in Skipton had been in operation for six months the council found out that 98 per cent preferred wheelie bins to bin bags."

Ryedale spends £40,000 a year on providing each household in the district with a bin bag.

Estimates put the cost of leasing the mobile bins in the region of £50,000 a year.

But the council's environment officers say further savings could be made by possible job losses, which they would hope to be through retirement.

There have been some concerns about how older people will manage with the bins and people living in houses with no rear access, but Coun Garbutt says there are solutions.

"It would be wrong to call this a money saving exercise," he said.

"Our main priority has to be the safety of our refuse collectors.

"Quite a few of our crew have been injured by glass left in bin bags and in this day and age there's a lot of concern about needles."

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