The Welsh Government’s plan to reduce black bin collections to once every three or four weeks has faced backlash, with some officials calling it preposterous due to potential health and safety concerns.

Black bag waste is currently collected every two weeks in Monmouthshire and Laura Anne Jones has slammed the Welsh Government for advising councils they should collect black bag waste “once every three to four weeks.”

Welsh Government's new guidance to councils says, “collection once every three to four weeks is sufficient and more frequent collection should be avoided so that it does not undermine the effectiveness of the recycling service provided.”

Laura Anne Jones MS, Senedd Member for South Wales East and Shadow Minister for Housing, Local Government and the Armed Forces, said: “In my opinion, two weeks should be the absolute maximum that black bins are collected.

“With the eye-watering council tax rises across Wales, councils should be able to manage, especially when you consider what residents are paying for services, and the health and safety issues which can come with less frequent collections.

“People in Labour- controlled Monmouthshire shouldered an eye-watering council tax rise in the most recent budget, and now the Labour Welsh Government are encouraging even deeper service cuts.

“People are better at managing their waste now, and that’s to be welcomed, but three-to-four-week collections is preposterous.”

Monmouthshire County Council have stated since 2013 they have operated a restricted household rubbish collection service of two bags per fortnight and are now recycling 64 percent of all household waste.

In Monmouth general waste is collected every fortnight however food and garden waste are collected weekly.

Households can contact MCC if there are more than five residents on advice for managing their waste.