List of councils running fortnightly collections

Sharon Lock, 36, has three bags of rubbish in her cluttered garage. They have accumulated there in the three days since her husband spent his Sunday morning driving to the tip seven miles away. Since February, when East Cambridgeshire District Council introduced fortnightly black-bag collections in Bottisham, he has been making the journey twice a week.

“It’s a real pain in the butt, to be honest with you”, the mother of one said. “My son, Drew, is 2 and we can’t have dirty nappies and food sitting in the garage for a fortnight. The smell is horrendous.”

Lucy Baynes, who gave birth to her first child Zac only five weeks ago, tells a similar story. Two days before the fortnightly collection in leafy Bottisham, there is already a pile of black bags stacked against a post outside her garden, one of the communal collection points for the village.

“Initially I thought the scheme was a good idea, but the stacks of rubbish are disgusting. That pile will be humming in the summer, and there will be more foxes and cats.”

The council halved black bag collections in Bottisham only weeks ago, having already done so last summer in the village of Witchford.

The pilot schemes are a response to the Government’s controversial drive to push councils into cutting down on landfill and boost recycling, which Ben Bradshaw, the Environment Minister, said has resulted in 144 councils already experimenting with fortnightly collections.

Voters in many of these local authorities, including East Cambridgeshire, will be taking part in local elections next week. If sitting councillors are going to suffer as a result of their decisions to cut back on the dustmen, you would expect it to be at the hands of people such as Mrs Lock and Ms Baynes.

Yet neither of these women will be voicing their frustration over refuse at the polls next week, because neither of them will be voting at all. Both cite their young children as a reason why they have not engaged with the election campaign, and both seem decidedly uninterested in whether the 17 Liberal Democrat councillors, 16 Conservatives and 6 independents will hold their seats on May 3.

Among those in the village who will vote, post office closures and council tax were both mentioned as reasons to back one party over the other, but not one person told The Times that the backlog of binbags would influence their decision.

Which is perhaps why Colin McLean, the village’s Conservative councillor, is relatively relaxed about the issue: “People have not been shaking hands over it on the doorstep,” he said, “but nor have they been shaking fists.”

Back in Bottisham, where the residents have had less time to adjust to the changes, John Humphreys expresses the mood of many people: “It is a diminution of the service which they tell us is an improvement, which gets up people’s noses, and its an imposition, but compared with the big issues like the NHS it is not important.”

The retired teacher is less than thrilled about having to store nonrecyclable rubbish for two weeks before it is taken off his hands. But he will not be swayed by the battle of the binbag when he goes to vote. “We are the compliant people of England, and life’s too short,” he said. “It’s not worth going to the barricades over.”

Foreign matter

Italy Daily collections from communal roadside bins. There are separate bins for glass, plastic and paper, but it is not enforced

Spain Wheelie bins emptied daily during the night. Recycling bins every few blocks

Brussels Households can dispose of rubbish only in official white bin bags, which they have to buy from shops. Bags for recycling, such as blue for plastics and bottles, are cheaper

France Several councils have started charging residents according to the weight of their rubbish

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