CROYDON Council has rejected the government's cash incentive to scrap its new fortnightly bin collection scheme.

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced today that £250million will be made available to help councils in England keep or restore weekly bin collections.

But Councillor Phil Thomas, cabinet member for environment and highways, said Croydon's new food waste recycling service will not be confined to the rubbish dump.

From Monday most households in the borough will have food waste, such as bread, meat and vegetables, collected from newly provided plastic containers.

Black refuse bins will now be emptied fortnightly, with current blue and green recycling boxes emptied on alternate weeks.

The council hopes the scheme will save £600,000 each year and increase recycling rates from 33 to 46 per cent by 2013.

Cllr Thomas told the Advertiser the plan would not be dropped despite Mr Pickles' claim that weekly rubbish collection was a 'basic right'

"We are committed to the scheme because we can see the economic and environmental benefits," he said.

"A lot of other local authorities have introduced this exact service and they have found no problem with it.

"We've only just rolled it out and I see no reason to change anything. In fact, I've been surprised with how good the response has been."

Labour leader Tony Newman, an outspoken critic of the new service, called on his rival to reconsider.

"I am genuinely stunned that Cllr Thomas is not prepared to look again or to at least delay the plan and meet Mr Pickles," he said.

"A system like this is fine if you live in a Sussex village and have a long driveway. You can put the food waste out and forget about the smell of rotting rubbish and rancid nappies.

"But in boroughs like Croydon, which have growing levels of multiple occupancy housing and a significant number of people living in flats, it is going to cause serious problems."

More than 106,000 tonnes of refuse from Croydon households is sent to landfill each year, with costs, including transport and landfill, nearing £100 per tonne.

The new scheme requires residents to put food waste in compostable sacks rather than plastic carrier bags.

These scraps will then be stored in a lockable plastic 'caddy' until collected.

Each of Croydon's 120,000 domestic properties should already have been provided with a starter pack, including two sizes of caddy (seven and 23 litre respectively) as well as 100 corn starch sacks.

People living in large blocks of flats will be given one caddy and asked to deposit food in large external containers, with this being introduced gradually between January and March 2012.

Cllr Thomas said the government's Weekly Collections Support Scheme would not help councils cope with rising landfil costs, currently at £56 per tonne but increasing £8 each year.

Cllr Newman replied: "There is a great deal of confusion among residents as to how this service will work.

"Even I wouldn't criticise Cllr Thomas for pausing for a few weeks to make sure he gets this right and to ensure Croydon isn't losing out on a significant amount of money which would allow us to do things differently."