A task force is to probe the health risks posed by leaving rubbish in bins for a fortnight.

Experts - including health professionals - will examine claims that alternate weekly pick-ups have led to an increase in rats and could lead to an explosion in maggots and bacteria during the hot weather.

Members of the Oxfordshire Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee, the county's health watchdog, called for the investigation in response to concerns over waste collection arrangements.

Oxford City and Cherwell District councils collect non-recyclable household waste fortnightly - while councils in the rest of Oxfordshire continue to collect weekly.

This will be the first time an investigation into the potential health hazards associated with alternate weekly collections has been launched in Oxfordshire.

The task force is due to meet later this month under county public health director Dr Jonathan McWilliam.

Former GP, county councillor and Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee chairman Peter Skolar, said: "Let's see if there are any facts out there.

"There are an awful lot of people making a lot of noise - some are saying it's perfectly safe while others are saying there are rats, mice, bacteria and the plague, so let's have more light and less heat.

"The public health group has been set up to look at the public health aspects of waste collection.

"My bins smell and they are collected weekly, but the smell is not dangerous.

"We need to ask 'are there any public health issues with waste collection arrangements?' "If the answer is no, then so be it. But if the answer is yes, then we need to notify the powers that be."

Oxford City Council recycling chief Shaun Hatton said: "The city council will be happy to contribute in any way we can to the review being undertaken by the task group."

On Friday seven people living in three properties in Oxford were fined £100 each for littering the streets - the first environmental penalties to be handed out in the county. They were fined by the city council for piling bags of waste next to their wheelie bins.

Executive member for a cleaner city Jean Fooks said: "I know some people are not happy to have their waste collected fortnightly.

"I absolutely do not accept fortnightly collections have anything to do with an increase in the rat population or maggots."

But Doretta Cocks, founder of the national Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, said: "As temperatures rise so does the rate of decomposition in the bin.

"Maggot infestations in wheelie bins are now commonplace in areas where fortnightly collections operate."