WHEELIE bins are likely to be introduced in Southend with recycling collected one week and general waste the next, it has been confirmed. 

Southend Council is under fire for trying to “sneak through” the potential changes to weekly bin collections without proper scrutiny.

Cabinet will meet today to ratify changes to the council’s waste collection contract amid allegations residents may lose out on weekly collections of some waste. 

Currently, black bin bags are used for general waste and pink sacks are used for recycling with both collected weekly.

However, new plans could see wheelie bins introduced with recycling collected one week and general waste the next.

Food waste in caddies would remain weekly.

Tory councillors have accused the council of “shamefully” bypassing proper scrutiny, after papers for the meeting were only released late on Friday, with important details on how the service may change kept out of the public domain

“Usually, we get at the very least a week, but normally we get it a couple of weeks in advance,” Conservative councillor Dan Nelson said.

“It has been rushed through because of the controversy around it and it is quite sickening to try and sneak this through without proper scrutiny.”

He added: “Furthermore, some parts of the meeting, including service changes, are behind closed doors which is absolutely disgusting. This is deeply concerning as the service change could be anything from bi-weekly waste collection to wheelie bins being introduced, or potentially both.”

Council officers have recommended cabinet retains Veolia at its recycling, waste and cleansing contractor until March 2031 despite the firm’s failure to meet the contractual 50 per cent target for recycling.

Ian Gilbert, Labour leader of the council, said: “All groups were fully briefed about the issue a good number of weeks ago. While it is extremely complicated and commercially sensitive, I think we have given sufficient chance for councillors to understand the issue.

“The reason that some items are not disclosed to the public is that certain matters are subject to commercial sensitivity involving third parties. If those matters were to make it into the public domain it could end up costing the taxpayer a huge amount of money.”