HOUSEHOLD rubbish collected by Malvern Hills District Council will be collected from the front of properties in a bid to improve services and cut costs if it gets final approval from full council this week.

As part of a Best Value review by MHDC officers, several recommendations to improve refuse services were passed by the Executive Board on Tuesday.

Although some residents in the district already put rubbish in black sacks in front of their houses, many others leave it at the rear to be moved by refuse collectors.

The council says the change could save £29,300.

But the move has not been well received by some Council Tax payers.

At Malvern's Hillstone House in Graham Road, rubbish bins are stored at the rear of the property.

For the block's elderly residents, carrying sacks to the street will present problems.

Seventy-six-year-old Audrey Glass said she would be physically unable to carry her rubbish up the property's driveway. "I am very, very angry," she said.

"When I came here I thought it was all lovely, that's why I moved from Worcester. I think if we start putting refuse out the front it will be a terrible mess."

The district council's corporate director and Best Value team leader, Colin Davis, said that for elderly and disabled people, and for properties with long drives, refuse collectors could continue to collect rubbish from where it was convenient.

He said: "We would have to cover that issue in any publicity about the changes and ask people to let us know if they have problems."

Further down Graham Road, at Graham Court, bins are already kept in an enclosure at the front of the property and one resident, Ernest Thomas, said he could see no issue with the proposed changes.