SENIOR citizens say they will fight any proposed change from weekly to fortnightly rubbish collections put forward by the new Tory-led council. At a meeting of the Weston Senior Citizens Forum, members unanimously voted to say they would prefer collection

SENIOR citizens say they will fight any proposed change from weekly to fortnightly rubbish collections put forward by the new Tory-led council.At a meeting of the Weston Senior Citizens Forum, members unanimously voted to say they would prefer collections to remain weekly.The concerns come following news that many councils across the country have trialled fortnightly collections in a bid to encourage households to become more environmentally friendly and increase the amount of waste recycled.Forum chairman, Ken Lacey, said: "Rubbish collections have been under review at North Somerset Council and we will be running a major campaign to retain a weekly service."The new Conservative council has said it will not implement a fortnightly collection, but we need to make absolutely sure that this does not happen."There are around 3,000 houses in central Weston alone in multiple occupancy and that volume of rubbish left lying around for two weeks will create one hell of a health hazard, not to mention increasing vermin."Waste management is a large concern for the council, and residents sitting around bags of smelly rubbish will not be a popular scenario for them."Between 2005 and 2006 over 108,000 tonnes of household waste was collected across North Somerset, 86,000 tonnes of which was sent to landfill sites.The volume of waste produced by authorities is controlled by the Government and European legislation which requires them to dispose of and recycle waste within annual limits.If the targets set are not achieved then the council faces fines, Government intervention or special measures to enforce them.The new Conservative North Somerset group leader, Nigel Ashton, said: "People want their rubbish collected every week and we will not be collecting it fortnightly."At the present time there is absolutely no question of us collecting fortnightly unless people start recycling 80 per cent of their rubbish."There is no reason why we should ask people to hold on to their rubbish for two weeks.