RUBBISH collections are not likely be slashed instantly when an urgent Wyre Forest recycling programme gets under way next year.

Residents should get about three months to get used to the new kerbside scheme for glass, paper, plastics, cans and textiles before their weekly wheelie bin collection is cut to fortnightly, it has been recommended.

Only 5.58 per cent of Wyre Forest's waste is currently recycled, with the rest going to landfill at Hartlebury - and this figure needs to be nearly doubled to 10 per cent by 2004. district councillor Keith Robertson tries out one of the new recycling vehicles proposed for Wyre Forest.

The district council, one of 89 failing on recycling, will get less money from the Government unless it meets tough targets.

Its community life and corporate issues overview and scrutiny committee considered the scheme on Tuesday and saw a demonstration of one of the recycling collection vehicles.

It had been proposed 35,000 district homes would be asked to place recyclable material in special containers for weekly kerbside collection in April next year.

This was to be combined with a reduction in standard wheelie bin collections from weekly to fortnightly.

Keith Robertson, portfolio holder for commercial services, said this was aimed at "putting pressure on the waste stream and forcing people to produce less waste and recycle more".

Fears about health implications of this cut in collections had been raised and Dr Reg Johnstone said before the meeting experts had told him there would be no problem provided bin lids were kept closed.

At Tuesday's meeting council commercial services chief Andrew Dickens said the district needed to take urgent action to increase recycling, having "stood still for five years".

"We have got to change hearts and minds and that needs an extensive education programme," he told councillors.

Initial 84 per cent coverage of Wyre Forest homes was proposed, with a collection scheme similar in principle to mobile libraries proposed for rural areas.

A trial of the scheme by 39 homes in Batham Road, Kidderminster, was hailed a success with residents recycling more than 30 per cent of waste.

Mr Robertson said district people had won the battle against the incinerator but urged them to "roll their sleeves up again" for the new challenge.

However, Fran Oborski described wheelie bins as "the one council service that is overwhelmingly approved of" and denounced the reduction in collections as "foolish".

The council's executive will consider the amended plan, which will see the scheme introduced more gradually, on Thursday, November 28.