Moves towards fortnightly waste collections in Oxford should be halted to stop the quality of life for residents being ruined, according to a campaign.

The Campaign For Weekly Waste Collection - which seeks to protect weekly rubbish collections and has 7,000 members - said Oxford residents will endure problems with smells, maggots and rats, especially in the summer months.

Campaign founder Doretta Cocks, who started her campaign in Chandlers Ford, in Hampshire, said: "I would urge Oxford City Council to please think again. Contact other councils and get their experiences. Many councils have reverted back to weekly collections because of the problems fortnightly collections cause."

Mrs Cocks, who founded the organisation 10 years ago, said people struggle with only 26 waste collections a year.

"I have heard from people who put their food waste such as chicken carcasses or fish left-overs in the freezer because they don't want them smelling out their bins.

"Another lady never bought meat or fish in the first week after collection so the waste wasn't hanging around.

"I support recycling, but this is forcing people to recycle and affecting their quality of life - in the summer you want to sit outside, but you won't if you can smell the bins."

Oxford resident Eric Murray, 59, from Bridge Street, Osney Island, has joined the campaign to retain weekly rubbish collections in the city.

The retired customer relations manager said: "I am in favour of recycling but I think moves to fortnightly collections is a retrograde step as it will alienate people against recycling.

"It seems such a dictatorial attitude from the council.

"I think it will encourage flytipping and people will dump their rubbish by other people's bins. And during the summer, if you go away, there could be rubbish hanging around for four weeks."

A number of councils elsewhere in the country have tried fortnightly waste collections in the past and gone back to a weekly system.

Southampton City Council, which tested fortnightly bin collections in parts of the town, said it ended its trial and reverted back to weekly collections.

A spokesman said: "It didn't go down too well with residents. It was just a trial and after it finished we decided to go back to weekly collections."

In 2002 Chelmsford Borough Council decided to collect household rubbish and garden rubbish on alternate weeks, but after a year bin men were told to pick up the household waste every week again.

North Lanarkshire Council, in Scotland, also returned to weekly collections of waste bins after a year of fortnightly collections.

The Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection wants to sign up hundreds of people to its campaign before petitioning the Government. Contact it at www.weeklywaste.com.

Parts of Oxford are due to get fortnightly collections in November. Houses will receive recycling boxes and a wheelie bin for non-recyclable waste.

City council spokesman Chris Lee said: "Fortnightly collections have been shown to be the best way of boosting recycling rates to the levels needed to avoid large fines. All of the top 10 recycling councils in England have fortnightly schemes.

"Cherwell pushed its recycling rate up from 11 per cent to 43 per cent with fortnightly collections and took a place in the top ten recycling councils in the country.

"Following its introduction in Cherwell, a questionnaire showed 85 per cent were either very satisfied or satisfied with the scheme."

* According to the campaign, other councils to revert to weekly collections include Sutton, Leeds, Plymouth, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Bury, Kirklees and Bolton.