A FOOD waste scheme will not be extended to thousands of Pendle homes amid concerns over the future of Lancashire’s recycling regime.

Leftovers from kitchen caddies at 7,000 terraced homes in Nelson, Colne, Barrowford and West Craven were supposed to be dealt with at county-run sites, initially in Leyland and later at Huncoat, near Accrington.

But the opening of the Leyland works has been delayed for several weeks and the future of the Huncoat site remains unclear after the county council lost a compulsory purchase battle there.

The food scraps, collected as part of a pilot initiative, are currently being sent to a private company, TEG Environmental based in Todmorden.

Further discussions have also been instigated by the Lancashire authority over a cost-sharing agreement, which may release Pendle from an obligation to provide a borough-wide kitchen waste system.

Coun James Starkie said it remained unclear what the arrangements were going to be for the rest of the year.

“The recommendation is that we continue with the current collections, as it is, and during the course of the year we will look at this again,” he said.

But the borough’s Liberal Democrats were keen to extend the kitchen caddies scheme to an extra 7,000 homes, at a cost of £100,000.

Coun David Whipp said: “The initial scheme has been a great success and I am sure it would get a fantastic response if it was extended.”

Councillors from the borough’s executive, after hearing the kitchen waste issue is also being reviewed by Whitehall environment officials from DEFRA, voted to continue the current 7,000 home pilot.