COUNCILLORS who looked into reducing bin collections to once every three weeks in Newport have scrapped the idea.

A working group from Newport City Council's Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee decided not to support the idea at a meeting yesterday, despite hearing that the move could help meet Welsh Government recycling rates.

The change was one of several explored by the working group in a bid to improve recycling rates.

Although the city council met the recycling targets in the 2016-2017 financial year, it is still below the Welsh average, and has missed statutory targets three times since 2012.

The committee meeting heard the council could be faced with a fine of more than £1million in 2024/25 if it does not meet the targets, which Cllr Charles Ferris (Allt-yr-yn, Conservative) said would be a "mortal blow."

Cllr Jason Hughes (Caerleon, Labour) said the group did not think Newport was "ready as a city" for collections once every three weeks.

However he warned that there is a 'misconception' about three weekly collections.

"If people understood that if you recycle properly on a weekly basis there would not be a need for the general household waste to be collected very often at all," he said.

He said education was needed to help people understand that bins would not be full under the system.

Council officers told the meeting switching to a three weekly collection is estimated to improve the recycling rate by six per cent, but that other councils had seen bigger improvements of around 10 per cent.