householders will not get their bins emptied weekly, despite a new £250m Government fund for councils to scrap fortnightly collections.

Councils across Oxfordshire look set to snub Communities Secretary Eric Pickles’ announcement that a quarter of a billion pounds had been found for councils to resume weekly bin rounds.

Oxford City Council leader Bob Price said yesterday that it was not a priority, not desirable and a waste of public money.

In Oxford, food waste is collected weekly, but recyclables and landfill waste are picked up on alternate weeks.

Mr Price said it would cost the council up to £1m to reinstate weekly waste collections, and another £1m for new trucks.

He added: “It is interesting they have prioritised this rather than housing benefit, building more social houses, or roads.

“We have not had any complaints about this for such a long time now. People have got used to it.”

But campaigners have called for the return of weekly collections.

Dr Francis Kennett, who was taken to court after withholding council tax following the introduction of fortnightly collections in 2007, said the system had left Oxford “filthy” with more rats on the streets.

She said: “The city council take a completely slanted view about the success of their system. It is very unjust for a great section of Oxford society.”

Collect Refuse in Oxford Weekly (Crow) founder Annie Skinner said: “If the money is available to revert back to weekly collections, that should be encouraged.

“I hope we can take this opportunity, because this clearly has not worked.”

Tory council leaders in South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse said they would not be asking for a handout either.

Like Oxford, both districts have seen recycling rates soar since the introduction of fortnightly collections over the past two years.

SODC leader Ann Ducker said: “People in South Oxfordshire and the Vale are the best recyclers in the country and we want to keep that going.

“It would be a waste of money to switch back to weekly collections at a time when we should be educating people not to send waste to landfill.”

And Vale council leader Matthew Barber said: “We are not getting many comments these days about the regularity of the collections, so we will not be consulting the public on going back to weekly collections.”

In West Oxfordshire, the councillor responsible for waste, David Harvey, said households were “very comfortable” with fortnightly waste collections because food scraps and recyclables were still collected weekly.

His counterpart at Cherwell District Council, James Macnamara, said he had to examine how much cash was available and the effect on recycling rates and landfill tax costs.

He said: “Satisfaction rates with our present collection system are around 87 per cent. It would be a brave council that tampered with something that popular.”