ROSSENDALE Council could revert to weekly refuse collections after residents complained that rubbish was overflowing under a new recycling scheme.

The council received complaints after it changed collection times from once a week, to every two weeks, in a pilot continental-style recycling scheme.

Under the initiative, residents were issued with recycling boxes, bins and bags, and refuse collectors take household rubbish one week, and recyclable products the next.

But the authority agreed the system should be reviewed at a meeting last night.

Around 6,000 homes in the valley were given a range of recycling equipment to help recycle glass and paper as part of a three-year trial funded by the Department for the Environment, Fisheries and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

Councillors said the scheme should be changed so that the bags and boxes are collected every third or fourth week, but normal household refuse should be collected once a week.

John McManus, who represents Helmshore, said: "Families cannot survive with one green bin which is emptied once every two weeks.

"Residents are not happy in my constituency and in other constituencies because rubbish is being spilled onto the streets because most people have too much waste to go in the green bin by the end of the two weeks.

"The collections should be changed to the recycled goods being collected every one in three weeks, or one in four weeks. The council has made this a pilot, so it should be modified. If we can't make collections once a week we should be offering then a second green bin."

Nicholas Pilling, chairman of development and environmental services, said: "It's a trial and it can be changed if it's not working and people are saying it's not.

"We have to be sure that we will not be penalised by DEFRA if we change the contract. To continue this for three years would be ludicrous and we are looking to change this."