BURNLEY Council has awarded a new waste collection and cleansing contract which it claims will bring benefits to residents across the borough.

Waste management firm Veolia Environmental Services will take over collecting household rubbish and most street cleaning work from current contractor Biffa from April 2007.

The new £3-million-a-year contract will run for a minimum of six years.

A management board of councillors and Veolia bosses will oversee the operation to try and avoid the sort of problems which led to the kerbside recycling service being binned two years ago because of a financial mix-up between the authority and Biffa.

The council undertook a public consultation when drawing up the new contract and feedback was taken into account in drawing up the agreement. Among the changes will be...

l Back gate collections for recycling containers in terraced areas (rather than at the front as now).

l Paper and cardboard will be collected in a re-usable bag not a plastic one.

l All "dry" recycling collections such as paper, textiles, cans, glass, plastic bottles will be collected by the same vehicle.

l Increased street cleaning resources.

Coun Charles Bullas, the council's deputy leader and executive member for the environment, said: "We've listened closely to what people have told us they want to see in the new contract and taken that into account.

"I'm convinced that the new contract will bring a range of benefits to residents who will quickly notice a real difference in the service."

Sixteen companies expressed an interest in bidding for the new contract.

Figures released by the Government show that in 2004/05, before the new alternate week recycling and refuse collections came in, the council only recycled 12.4 per cent of rubbish collected.

Since April, when the new collection service started, the borough's recycling rate has risen to almost 30 per cent.