The debate about monthly bin collections is to continue.

At a meeting on Tuesday, Conwy Council cabinet members made the decision to keep bin collections at three weeks while a four weekly trial is to continue in the pilot areas to allow officers to revisit the matter.

At the meeting cabinet members presented findings of the year-long trial of the four weekly collection.

The results showed a 14 per cent increase in recycling amongst the 10,900 houses in the trial and a 31 per cent reduction in waste in wheelie bins, while a financial difference between operating three weekly (17 collections per year) and four weekly (13 collections per year) of £390,000 per year was also found.

But the decision caused controversy amongst residents with some labelling the four weekly collection a joke and raising concerns about increased fly-tipping which lead to a council scrutiny committee voting against the four weekly collection as a recommendation to the cabinet.

But cabinet members said in their meeting last Tuesday that while it was a difficult decision to make they were “disappointed at the standard of debate” and the “anecdotal evidence that appeared to be relied upon”.

Councillor Garffild Lloyd Lewis, the cabinet member for education and skills, said during the meeting he was in favour of the four weekly collections, but felt residents were not quite ready and further education of households was needed.

Cabinet Member for Environment, Roads and Facilities, Cllr Donald Milne, presented the findings to the cabinet and said there had been a number of concerns from residents who had taken part in the trial but they were working to ease the concern.

Cllr Milne, in an interview with the Pioneer, said: “We wish to address all the concerns that residents have, but there are many that have been happy with it (four weekly bin collection).

“We want to see if we can improve how people perceive it.

“The key is to increase recycling. Whatever method we use, it doesn’t matter what method we use, as long as we get most of the items in the waste into the recycling.”

An increased amount of recycling and reduction in waste disposal would in turn reduce the amount taken to landfill bringing down the amount of landfill tax paid by the council.

Alternative ways of increasing recycling were also considered during the cabinet meeting including reducing the size of the residual waste bins.