A SKIPTON councillor has urged people living in the town's terraced houses to have their say about proposed changes to the way their waste is collected.

North Yorkshire Council is currently consulting until the middle of September on proposals which could see residents get two recycling bins - one for paper and cardboard, and one for glass, cans and plastic, with alternate fortnightly collections.

The council says its aim is to reduce contamination and collect better quality material at the kerbside, which it says is improved when residents are able to separate recyclable material. By keeping the items separate also makes the waste worth more to recycling manufactures.

North Yorkshire councillor David Noland, who represents Skipton North and Embsay with Eastby, told Thursday's meeting of Skipton Town Council that the county's residents currently only recycled 41 per cent of waste which could be recycled.

Cllr Noland, a member of the committee looking into the proposals, said: "The aim is to provide a collection system that will encourage residents to recycle more. North Yorkshire Council residents only recycle about 41 per cent of that possible, so, much is burnt, which costs money, that could be remade, which saves money and resources."

Cllr Robert Heseltine, who represents Skipton East on North Yorkshire Council, told the town council meeting that he feared for the residents of the town's terrace houses where wheelie bins already took up a lot of space and predicted 'chaos' if additional bins were introduced.

"Having an extra bin outside every house in these back streets will be chaos, there needs to be a protest," he said.

Cllr Peter Madeley said there were several issues with recycling, pointing out that there were no recycling bins on the High Street and that the rubbish from the town's market all went into landfill.

"As a town, we are particularly terrible at recycling; we have these super bins on the High Street that everything goes into, but no recycling bins. People want to recycle, North Yorkshire needs to encourage people," he said.

Mayor, Claire Nash, urged people to take part in the consultation, which will also include drop in events, details of which are still to be announced.

To take part in the survey, visit www.northyorks.gov.uk/LetsTalk Copies of the survey are also available in libraries or at the Craven office of North Yorkshire Council at Belle Vue Square, Skipton; also by telephone on 0300 131 2 131 - when prompted say ‘Let’s Talk’, or email : LetsTalk@northyorks.gov.uk.

The deadline for responses is September 16. A schedule of face-to-face engagement events will be shown on the council's consultation webpage.