Brown bin rounds look set to return within the next three years as Barnet Council strives to meet London-wide waste reduction targets.

Separate food waste collections – which were suspended in November last year – are expected to return by 2022, according to the council’s reduction and recycling plan.

The plan aims to achieve a 50 per cent household waste recycling rate by 2030 – a target set out in Mayor of London Sadiq Khan’s London Environment Strategy.

A row broke out between the council and the mayor after the plan to stop brown bin rounds was announced in May 2018.

Mr Khan pointed out the move was at odds with his environment strategy and threatened to overturn the decision.

The council later said the move was temporary and brown bin collections would be reintroduced “to a timescale which meets the requirements of the London Environment Strategy”.

At a meeting of the environment committee on Wednesday (September 11), Labour councillors called for a firmer commitment on brown bin rounds.

Labour environment spokesman Cllr Alan Schneiderman said: “There is no commitment in the report to reintroduce a separate food waste collection service. I think this is a big mistake.

“This report just talks about an aim to reintroduce it – and even then, not until 2022. Residents will have been without a separate collection service for four years.”

Chairman of the committee Cllr Dean Cohen (Conservative) replied there was an “intention” to bring brown bin rounds back by 2022.

He added the cost of reintroducing them much earlier would have to be offset by a move to fortnightly bin collections.

Jamie Blake, the council’s executive director of environment, said Barnet’s reduction and recycling plan had been drawn up in collaboration with the Greater London Authority (GLA).

He said: “GLA officers understand there are potential barriers to introducing the food waste scheme.

“We believe our plan meets the requirements of the London-wide strategy.”

Mr Blake pointed out the council was also spending a considerable sum of money on making its vehicles more environmentally friendly.

The reduction and recycling plan was approved by the committee.