BURNLEY Council has set up a working group to look at plans for waste collection in the town next year.

The council's current contract with Biffa runs out in April 2007, and council bosses want to ensure a smooth handover to the next contractor, whether that is Biffa, or a new company.

It will be particularly keen to 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 working group has been looking at strengths and weaknesses of the current contract, and has drawn up a brief for consultants who will help choose the contractor.

Chairman Charles Bullas said: "We have been discussing some of the issues surrounding waste collection what is good and bad about the system we have now and getting ready for when the new contract has to be in place."

Council chiefs say recycling rates in Burnley have more than doubled since the introduction of alternate week collections.

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

Since April, when the new collection service started, the borough's recycling rate has risen to almost 30per cent, one of the best in the North West.