Local councils have been stripped of their powers to hand out petty fines to people who put their bins out early.

The Government’s long awaited waste review said authorities could no longer dish out penalty fines to householders who break minor rubbish collection rules.

The Government has alsoscrapped plans to give cash incentives to councils who collect household rubbish every week.

Southend Council’s Tory leader Nigel Holdcroft said weekly collections would be kept in the borough as long as he was leader.

Mr Holdcroft said: “There is absolutely no prospect of a Tory administration in this town under my leadership abandoning weekly collections.

“It has been a commitment which Southend Tories have made at each election for the last three or four years.”

Rochford Council collects food waste weekly and empties wheelie bins with non-recyclable waste and recycleable waste on alternate weeks.

Councillor Michael Steptoe, said: “In a recent survey we organised 91 per cent of people told us they were happy with the current system and 93 per cent said they now recycled much more than they used to.

“We have no reason to think about changing.”

Castle Point Council is planning to switch to a similar collection system to Rochford from the beginning of July.

Ray Howard, the authority’s councillor for waste, said: “As long as I’m cabinet member we will maintain a weekly collection.”

Only Basildon Council has dished out a fine over rubbish issues.

Leslie Brooks, 48, of Lower Street, Noak Bridge was fined £240 last year after Basildon Council prosecuted him for putting his pink sacks out on the wrong day.

Mr Brooks claimed the council unfairly picked on him in what was the first such prosecution in the borough.

He labelled the fine as “outrageous”.

By contrast Southend Council has never fined any resident for putting out their rubbish or recycling sacks early or late, though in 2008 council chiefs did threaten to prosecute householders leaving waste on pavements the night before collections.

The waste review carried out by the Environment Department warned local authorities attempting to change back from fortnightly to weekly waste collections would face dramatically increased costs and would reverse efforts to increase recycling rates.