HOUSEHOLDS across Poole will lose their weekly black bin collections from Monday.

Borough of Poole (BOP) will now only collect black bins on alternate weeks to blue bins. So households will have black bins emptied one week, then blue bins emptied on the same day the following week.

The move to fortnightly collections is being implemented in a bid to save £500,000 a year from the council's budget.

BOP has written to residents informing them of the changes.

Cllr John Rampton, cabinet portfolio holder for environment and consumer protection at BOP, said: "This is about safeguarding the service, about creating a sustainable service - but it is driven mainly financially, it is a financial imperative.

"Council, back in February 2015, voted on this to basically save us money. Since then there has been a very open and democratic process."

Poole joins two-thirds of local authorities that operate two-weekly collections, which research has shown encourages higher recycling rates and reduces the amount of waste sent to expensive treatment facilities.