Locals fear the new move will lead to an increase in fly-tipping and attract foxes and vermin, but the council insists it will make the borough more environmentally friendly. Is it just a desperate cost cutting measure? Lyndsay Warner on a controversial decision

A council in Greater Manchester is to be the first in England to start collecting wheelie bins only once every three weeks, scrapping the current fortnightly collection.

The controversial decision was unanimously passed by councillors in Bury on Wednesday night, despite fears fly tipping would increase. One councillor who voted for the motion accused her opponents of “scaremongering” after they warned rubbish would pile up and attract vermin. Another argued the money saved could be spent on more social workers.

More than 3,300 people signed a petition opposing the new initiative, which will be introduced on 6 October.

It affects the grey bins used for general household waste which can't be recycled. The green and blue coloured bins for paper, glass and plastic will be collected more often than they are currently - every three weeks instead of monthly. The emptying of all communal bins serving flats will not change.

The Labour-run council claims the move is part of a strategy to turn Bury into a "zero waste borough", boost recycling and save money on landfill fees. But many residents feel it is simply a desperate cost saving measure, after the town hall was told to make more than £32m of cuts over the next two years.

Local Labour MP Ivan Lewis said difficult decisions had to be made because the coalition had imposed an effective 50% cut to the council's budget over five years. “The cuts being imposed by the Con/Dem Government on Bury Council are unprecedented and mean many front line services are at risk,” he said on his blog. Some MPs privately complain that they receive more complaints about bin collection than any other issue, despite all responsibility for waste management lying with local government rather than parliament.

Earlier this year Gwynedd council in Wales voted to start collecting rubbish every three weeks, following the lead of Falkirk in Scotland.

On Wednesday night members of the public spoke out against the decision during the meeting at Bury Town Hall.

Jason Turner, a 43-year-old telecommunications worker from Whitefield, has four children aged between three and t10 years old. He said it is a "fundamental right" to have waste collected regularly. "I don't want my bins stinking and overflowing. My mother in law lives around the corner and we have to put rubbish in her bin as it is. I also do at least one ten mile journey to the tip and back each month too. It's a ludicrous decision and if Bury council get away with it then other councils will follow," he said.

Turner started a Facebook page to rally opposition to the new plan.

But Labour councillor Sandra Walmsley was defiant: "Despite the scaremongering online Bury is leading the way on the green agenda," she said.

Andrew Duff, 55 from Prestwich, said that with four adults in his household, bin space is already a problem. He told councillors that Prestwich tip has been closed and he doesn't have a car. "Am I expected to carry the excess bags myself to the tip in Radcliffe?" he asked. "There will be massive budget consequences elsewhere, for example the bill for sorting out the fly-tipping which will happen if bins aren't emptied. You're not managing green issues; you're managing austerity issues," he said.

Councillor Susan Southworth, Labour, insisted the measure would not lead to public health issues, saying: "There's no evidence there will be detrimental impact to public health, such as vermin, unpleasant smells and fly-tipping." She advised residents that adequate bagging-up of rubbish is crucial and that any fly-tipping should be reported and will be dealt with. "We're committed to keeping this borough as green and clean as possible," she said.

Under the new arrangements, larger families with extra waste they can’t recycle, such as disposable nappies, will be able to apply for an extra grey bin. Extra blue and green recycling bins can also be requested. Any household with one of the smaller brown bins can upsize to a larger one.

Councillor Tony Isherwood, cabinet member for environment, said: “Under the new proposals, most households will continue to have a collection of at least one type of waste every week. Grey bins will be emptied less often but, because the green and blue recycling bins will be collected more often, there will be no change to the total weekly bin space available across all four bins. Treatment and disposal of waste from grey bins costs us around £28,000 per day – that’s £10.2 million per year. And a lot of this waste could be recycled instead.”

He said that in the last three years Bury’s recycling rate has risen from 29.4% to 47.6% but he has ambitions to reach 75%. "We know we can and must do more. Recycling just 10% more than we do now would save nearly £1 million per year which would be better spent on protecting other local services."

Councillor Rishi Shori said that the £28,000 a day it costs the council to deal with rubbish which could have been recycled could be spent on better things: "£28,000 is the cost of a good social worker, for example. We need to get our priorities right. It's morally right to go down this route and it will also teach the next generation to recycle."