Councillors are to discuss reducing the frequency of brown bin collections to fortnightly while retaining an annual charge for the service at the current rate.

The garden waste permit scheme, now in its fourth year of operation, currently provides permit-holders with 50 weekly collections of food and garden waste throughout the year for a one-off annual fee of £52.20.

In order to reduce the cost of heavily subsidising garden waste collections, it has been proposed that from 2025/26, the council keeps the current annual charge for permits but changes the frequency of brown bin collections to every two weeks.

This it says will provide permit-holders with 25 collections throughout the year, which according to the local authority will save it around £350,000 and will “contribute to the overall savings the council needs to make in the year ahead”.

Indeed, the proposal comes after Council Leader Owen O’Donnell warned earlier this month that the council is facing significant financial challenges to close a projected budget shortfall of £15million for 2025/26.

Cllr O’Donnell said cuts to services would be required “to help close the budget gap and this would impact the services the council delivers to the public”.

The proposal to move to fortnightly brown bin collections will be discussed by councillors at a meeting of the full council on Wednesday, October 23.

According to the local authority, East Renfrewshire is the only council that continues to offer a weekly garden waste collection.

The report which will be discussed by councillors at the meeting next week states the estimated cost of providing a weekly garden waste collection in 2025/26 is £1.9m.

While around 22,800 permits were sold this year, the forecast income from permit sales is £1.2m, £700,000 less than what it costs to run the service.

The report by officers says a decision has to be taken “now” to allow for “enough time for a fortnightly collection to be introduced from May”.

According to the local authority, if the proposal goes ahead, this will bring it into line with neighbouring councils.

The garden waste scheme is an opt-in permit system and anyone who does not require their garden waste to be collected can still use their brown bin for food waste.

Food waste collection remains a statutory service and is collected from brown bins without the need for a permit.

Residents also have the option of purchasing additional permits.