GARDEN waste will be collected only once a month in Wrexham during the winter after new service changes were agreed.

Currently green bins in the county are emptied once a fortnight throughout the year.

However, Wrexham Council’s executive board has backed the move during colder months after it said there was a large reduction in the amount of green waste generated by residents.

Cllr David A Bithell, lead member for environment, said that on average around 250 tonnes was collected during winter months, compared to around a million in others.

At a meeting on Tuesday he said: “Since the adoption of the service the quantity of garden waste collected has been recorded and these figures clearly demonstrate that during the months of December, January and February they drop considerably.

“In the report it does actually give you the tonnage of garden waste that drops.

“It’s quite a significant drop during the winter months and the proposal today is not to stop garden waste collections but instead of fortnightly to go monthly.

“That’s to improve efficiency of the service, that’s also to add resilience to our winter service team and reduce agency costs for the department as well.”

People who have extra green bins can still have them all collected at the same time when the changes are brought in from this December.

The local authority currently charges an annual fee of £30 per extra bin. The changes were met with unanimous approval by leading councillors and mostly supported by backbench politicians.