New figures show that almost half of all councils have axed weekly rubbish collections. The Government has revealed that 155 English councils, representing 18 million people, have scrapped weekly bin collections - and in Northern Ireland, a staggering 90% of councils have scrapped them.

Well I must confess that I am dead set against fortnightly collections. I understand all the arguments about the change driving up recycling rates – but here in Barnet – we have driven up recycling rates from 8% to over 32% and when plastic and cardboard recycling starts when we let the new contract – recycling rates will increase again.

We will roll out more and more green recycling bins for food and garden waste as well as introduce kitchen caddies to make recycling kitchen waste more palatable. So in my opinion we can increase recycling rates even more – but we don’t have to go to fortnightly collections.