Merton Council’s controlling Labour group has been accused of breaking its manifesto promises and failing to consult residents properly in the ongoing dispute over wheelie bins.

Conservative Councillor Charlie Chirico has accused Labour of breaking its 2014 local election promise to maintain weekly rubbish collections, after the announcement that household waste would only be collected fortnightly if a new scheme from waste contractor Veolia was implemented as part of the South West London Waste Partnership.

June 15: 'Mucky Merton' set for wheelie bins and fortnightly household waste collections

If Veolia, the council’s preferred bidder, win the contract, from October 2018 every home would have a bin for non-recyclable waste, a bin for paper and card, a box for plastics, glass and cans and a food waste caddy.

Food waste would be collected weekly, with household waste collected fortnightly and the two recycling collections occurring on alternate weeks.

Cllr Chirico said: “Residents are going to have to store their rubbish for an extra week. Bins will be overflowing. It will just cause more mess and more smell. It’s not fair on residents.

“Litter is one of the biggest issues that councillors get complaints about. For them to commit to weekly collections during the 2014 election and then change it to two weeks – it’s an outright lie.”

In 2014 the Labour group issued a five page manifesto in the run up to the May elections.

In it the group promised to keep streets clean; launching a new 24-hour call-out service between sweeps for dirty areas, cleaning High Streets seven days a week, protecting the free bulky waste collection service from residents’ homes and maintaining the weekly rubbish collection.

Despite this, cabinet member for environmental cleanliness and parking, Councillor Ross Garrod, insisted the new scheme is the most “sensible and affordable” way of cleaning up the borough.

He said: “When the Tories were in charge, Merton was officially the dirtiest borough in London. That’s why Labour brought in on-the-spot fines for people who litter and why we are now looking at bringing in wheelie bins to stop the problem of split black sacks and rubbish on the street.

“The sensible and affordable way to do this is to continue weekly food and recycling collections to increase recycling. If the Tories want to spend millions encouraging people not to recycle then they need to say what council services they will cut to do this.”

A spokeswoman for the Labour Group added that the wheelie bin pilot of 1,000 households in Lavender Fields ward showed 89 per cent of residents were satisfied with the bins and 95 per cent thought they were easier to use than the current system.

Cllr Chirico also criticised the pilot, arguing it was inaccurate as it was based on a weekly collection. She said: “They haven’t done an annual residents survey since 2014 and haven’t consulted with anyone who doesn’t live in Lavender Fields.

"To do something like this without proper consultation when you’re breaking a manifesto promise, it’s just ludicrous.”

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Correction: This article incorrectly stated that the wheelie bin pilot was in Lavender Hill. The pilot actually took place in Lavender Fields