A householder in Kidlington claims new arrangements for collecting waste have left bags of rubbish littering the streets.

Under the new system, weekly collections of rubbish have been replaced by fortnightly collections of household waste, with items for recycling collected every other week.

The changes are part of a £1.2m scheme by Cherwell District Council to slash the amount of household waste sent to landfill, while increasing the district's recycling rate from 11 to more than 30 per cent.

But Debbie Edens, of Banbury Road, said the fortnightly collection system was unacceptable. She said the council had also reduced the amount of waste which could be collected from each household to just one wheelie bin.

On Wednesday, April 14, only one of the two bins Miss Edens put out was emptied. A note was left on the other saying it was "excessive".

She said: "What are we supposed to do with it? It's causing chaos. There were bags of rubbish everywhere yesterday after the collection.

"They are charging extortionate council tax and yet cutting down on our services."

Miss Edens said she had consulted a solicitor about whether it was legal for the district council to make people recycle.

She added that even if she recycled as much waste as possible she would still have to cut her amount of rubbish by half.

Miss Edens, who has three children, said the only way she thought the scheme would work would be if there were collections of both waste and recyclable items every week.

"Leaving rubbish in bins for two weeks is unhygienic. Rotten food smells," she said.

The district council was given a £1m grant from the Government to set up the new collection scheme. The changes have been introduced in stages since last August. Geoff Melotti, the council's amenity services manager, said all 55,000 homes in the district were now included in the scheme. Since starting, the amount of waste sent to landfill had decreased by 40 per cent.

He added: "Our experience is that residents when they first go on the scheme have had difficulties dealing with the changes. But in general, after a few weeks those issues settle down.

"Overall we are very pleased with the scheme. We are making a good contribution to protecting the environment for the future."

Anyone with queries about the new collection arrangements should call 01295 221940.