A senior councillor has stressed a decision to change to fortnightly bin collections being introduced this autumn won't be reversed even if it proves unpopular among some residents.

Cllr Ken Hawkins, Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council's (SMBC) cabinet portfolio holder for environment and infrastructure, has faced tough questions about the major changes residents will see which also include the introduction of a weekly food waste collection.

If you live in a house or flat and have your own bin or sacks, the council will deliver two caddies to each household between August and September. Residents will receive a 7-litre kitchen caddy and a 23-litre lockable outdoor caddy to keep outside.

From October 5, when the service begins, food waste such as plate scrapings, peelings and tea bags go into the new kitchen caddy. When this is full householders empty it into the new outside food caddy ready for the normal collection day.

The food waste will be taken to be turned into renewable energy and fertiliser for local farms.

SMBC says the reduction in food waste means, from October 5, they can also move most households to having rubbish collected fortnightly instead of weekly collections.

But at the latest full council meeting on July 7 Cllr Paul Goldingay said the changes "assumed" householders would be able to roughly halve their general waste.

"Residents, myself included, already struggle to fit within the existing bin capacity even after recycling," he said.

He asked if there could be a 12-month trial period and the ability to "revert back" to weekly rubbish collections if there were service failures or complaint levels from residents were high at the end of it.

"The clear, definite answer to that is no," Cllr Hawkins said.

"On average 72 per cent of what goes in the weekly waste bin can be recycled."

Cllr Goldingay pointed out that in Coventry residents had a 240 litre general waste bin compared to 140 for Solihull residents

The councillor asked: "As you have said there will be no going back, would it not be more pertinent to allow each resident to have the larger, 240 bin?"

Cllr Hawkins replied: "We know some authorities have the larger bin, some don't.

"If all that happens is people put it all in a larger bin, that defeats the objective – we have got to find a way to help people towards more recycling."

Cllr Alan Wigley asked: "What assessment has been made of the risk of increased flytipping arising from the October change?

"What mitigation will be in place including provision for flats, HMOs and properties unsuitable for standard bins?"

Cllr Hawkins replied: "The changes being introduced in October primarily affect houses and those flats where residents already have bins.

"Most flats won't see a change in refuse collection arrangements – food waste collections won't be introduced at the majority of flats until 2027."

He added that officers would visit areas where side waste is most common and deliver targeted communication to residents to support them to recycle.

The new service comes as part of the government's 'Simpler Recycling' scheme, which is designed to make recycling easier and more consistent across England.

For more details on the new food waste collection services, click here.