WEEKLY bin rounds will be back in Bolton within a few weeks.

And every home will have a weekly collection by October.

Labour leader Cllr Cliff Morris made the pledge as his party was confirmed as the new controllers of Bolton Council.

He is now in talks with the council's director of commercial services, Alan Fisher, to see when the first homes can get their weekly collections back. It could be in as little as three weeks.

The weekly bin rounds would then be reintroduced gradually to the rest of the borough over the next few months.

The controversy over the fortnightly bin rounds has been blamed by Liberal Democrat politicians for their setbacks in last week's council elections which saw them lose control of the council.

They lost two seats to Labour and two to the Conservatives.

Although Labour do not have an overall majority on the council, they are now the biggest party and the Conservatives have agreed that Labour should take control.

Cllr Morris said: "I am pleased and privileged to be the new leader of Bolton Council and we will be making sure that we keep our election promises.

"We have listened to residents' concerns and moving back to a weekly bin collection has been a priority for us."

Plans by the previous Liberal Democrat administration to extend the fortnightly collections to the whole borough have noe been scrapped.

Most of Bolton's 116,000 homes now have the fortnightly collections. They were first introduced last June, with recycling containers being collected in the weeks when wheelie bins for household rubbish were not being emptied.

Many householders protested that they were unable to manage with fortnightly collections.

The scheme was introduced so that Bolton could increase its recycling rate.

If the council does not meet a Government taerget of a 33 per cent increase by 2010, it will face fines of around £1.5 million.

Cllr Barbara Ronson, the leader of the ousted Lib Dems regime, warned that bringing back the weekly system cost an additional £500,000 this year alone.

She said:: "We introduced the alternate system not just for the benefits to the environment, but also because without it the council would have been hit by huge fines for missing Government recycling targets.

"This move could end up costing the council a fortune."

In exchange for helping to vote through the Labour executive in the council chamber, the Tories will receive the chairmanship of the five scrutiny committees, the chairmanship and deputy chairmanship of the planning committee and the deputy chairmanship of the licensing committee.

Labour have increased the number of executive positions from eight to ten.

Cllr Elaine Sherrington will be one of the executive members most under the spotlight. She has been given the responsibility of controlling waste management, and will be in charge of introducing changes to the refuse collection system.

Conservative leader Cllr Alan Rushton said: "We have always said that the largest party in the council chamber should be the one to form the executive.

"As the second biggest party, we feel we should form the formal opposition.

"We will not be giving Labour an easy ride in the next 12 months and will be doing all we can to hold them to account."

After last week's elections, Labour has 22 seats on the council, the Conservatives have 21 and the Liberal Democrats have 17.