THE reintroduction of the weekly grey bin collection in Bolton will cost £3.7 million over the next two years, it has been revealed.

A new report has revealed for the first time the massive cost of scrapping the controversial alternate weeks collection, introduced by Bolton Council's former Liberal Democrat rulers.

Under plans drawn up by the council's new Labour leaders, the first homes will have their weekly collection restored next month, with all homes in the borough receiving the weekly bin rounds by October. But today, Labour leader Cllr Cliff Morris said the cost would not be borne by council tax payers.

Finance bosses estimate it will cost around £1.3 million to run the new scheme until the end of the financial year, and a further £2.4 million next year.

The extra shifts involved with restoring a weekly service and the rising charges for disposing of waste at landfill sites is behind the increased costs.

Labour leaders plan to meet the costs by using funds from a recycling grant and spending the dividend of the profits it receives from its part-ownership of Manchester Airport.

When the weekly scheme is reintroduced, homes will continue to receive a weekly kerbside collections for waste paper and alternate collections of green boxes and green bins for garden waste and vegetable peelings.

Cllr Morris said council tax payers would not be hit with rising bills.

And he promised to improve on the council's recycling record.

"It mustn't cost the council tax payer any more than they're paying now and I can guarantee no front line services will be affected," he said.

"We've got to let the weekly collections bed in. The only budget we're looking at is the budget for recycling. There are always changes that can be made. No money will come away from promoting recycling.

"Until the first month, how can we predict costs? We just want to make sure that when we do, it we want to avoid the chaos of when it started."

But Liberal Democrat councillor Roger Hayes, who was the council's deputy leader before the Lib Dems were ousted, said the move was bound to have an impact on council finances.

"It could equate to a five per cent rise in council tax and cuts in services to make up the extra council funds," he said..

The aim was to encourage people to recycle and help the council avoid fines of up to £1.5 million by meeting Government targets of recycling 20 per cent of the borough's by March next year.

Many householders said they were unable to cope with the amount of waste they were putting in their grey bins and that it had led to a rise in fly-tipping and a rise in vermin.

Both Labour and Conservative vowed to scrap the scheme as part of their election pledges.

Most of Bolton's 116,000 homes are now under the scheme, which was first introduced in June last year and has helped to improve the borough's recycling record by 300 per cent.

Some councillors are concerned that going back to a weekly grey collection will mean fewer people recycling.

Cllr Hayes said: "Labour seem to assume there will not be a drop in recycling under this scheme, but there will. People need encouraging.

"How do they intend to break a system that has happened everywhere else?"

Conservative Cllr Stuart Lever, who fought strongly for a return of the weekly grey bin collection, believes Labour's plan is not the best method.

"It's beyond irresponsible," he said. "We will not let them go ahead with it. It defies bad management."