Rubbish and recycling collections in Falmouth look set to be fortnightly after a major cock-up in finding a new operator for the service.

Cornwall Council has been in negotiations to find a new provider of rubbish and recycling services in Cornwall with the current contract due to end next year.

In a bid to drive up recycling rates the council had set out plans to move black bag rubbish collection to fortnightly and recycling and food waste to weekly.

However after failing to find an operator which could provide that service within the council's budget the authority has now had to alter the plans.

As a result, the council is now asking the new operator to provide fortnightly black bag and recycling collection alongside a new weekly food waste collection.

The change represents a reduction on the current service which sees householders having their black bag waste collected weekly and recycling fortnightly.

Cornwall Council leader Julian German was forced to make the urgent change to the terms of the proposed contract on October 23 and next week the changes will go before the council's Cabinet to be "noted".

While the new contract is set to come into force next year the changes to the waste collection will not be rolled out until June 2021.

The Cabinet report states: "The new waste collection service, that will come in from 2021 will be fortnightly residual waste and weekly food waste, the recycling collection will remain as fortnightly instead of changing to weekly."

And in another change, the council is also seeking to remove all recycling banks from the start of the contract.

The report also sets out that the current contract for the service has also been extended by six months to allow for the new contract to be finalised.

In addition, the council is also looking to increase the charges for its garden waste collection service which users have to subscribe to. Under the plans, the annual rate will increase from £38.75 to £43 – an increase of 8p a week. The council says that this will bring the service in line with other south-west authorities.

The change to having all black bag and recycling to be collected fortnightly is not expected to be received well by residents – many were already concerned about the shift to a fortnightly black bag service including concerns about how they are going to store their waste.

In the Cabinet, report officers state that the new service should still enable the council to meet its target of recycling 50% of household waste.

As well as rubbish and recycling services the new contract will also be seeking the operator to provide other services including beach cleaning, graffiti removal and street cleaning.

Companies have been told that they should submit their bids for the contract by December 6.

The Cabinet will meet to discuss the report on Wednesday, November 13.