Weekly food waste collections are set to be scrapped from 2014 in Wychavon, Worcestershire, in a bid to save the district council an estimated £550,000 per year.

Wychavon district councillors voted in favour of withdrawing the service from January 10 2014 at a meeting of the Executive Board earlier this month, but a final decision will be made at a full council meeting on September 24.

The council said that it needed to make savings of around £4 million over the next four years due to government funding cuts and that as the number of people making use of food waste collections has ‘dropped significantly’, it had ‘no option but to stop the service’.

Instead, Councillors have agreed to promote home composting and the minimisation of household food waste.

According to a council survey on possible budget cuts, the collection of food waste was listed as the most popular council service to withdraw by 88% of 1,722 residents who responded. 53 businesses were also surveyed, with 93% favouring the end of food waste collection services.

Council data suggests that the annual tonnage of food waste collected in Wychavon has fallen from 1,282 in 2009/10 to just 817 tonnes in 2012/13.

Furthermore, the council said that less than 20% of residents are currently using food waste collection services, making the decision to remove it ‘more straightforward than a lot of decisions the council is faced with’.