CUT-BACKS to Warrington's bin service including job losses look imminent after a council report stated savings of £210,000 are required by April 2003.

Councillors will meet on Monday night to discuss the possible savings that could include a reduction in the current number of bin rounds in the borough from 18 to 17 with a resultant loss of staff.

Clr John Kerr Brown, executive member for neighbourhood services, will present the report to the executive board and he said reducing agency staffing costs was a key issue.

He added: "That is the key area where we will be looking at and our aim is to take all the steps possible to protect, where possible, contracted council employees.

"Another key area is to increase productivity because our collection target is 6,000 bins a week and we were below that, so we need to look at that.

"This is a good service, it has a two-star rating and it is our intention to continue to provide a quality service to the public, although improvements can be made."

The council currently employees both contracted full time staff and part-time, agency workers for refuse collection and is in negotiation with trade unions over the plans.

For a full report from the meeting with the recommendations for the service, read next Thursday's Guardian.