THE Mayor of Middlesbrough has announced that bin collections will remain weekly, after a U-turn on the decision to make collections fortnightly.

In a Facebook post Mayor Andy Preston said in a year of fly-tipping and a rise of issues of rats and rodents he said he didn't think the town would cope with fortnightly bin collections.

The Facebook post said: "Last night me and the executive team decided that Middlesbrough’s bin collections should stay on a weekly basis.

"Due to financial and environmental pressures - and to match other local authorities - we’d previously decided that collections should become fortnightly.

"But since then we’ve had more information and financial clarity.

"In this challenging year fly tipping and the rodent population has grown rapidly nationally and in Middlesbrough. With this in mind I don’t think that as a town we are ready to cope with fortnightly collections.

"What we have to do though is increase our very poor rates of recycling and reduce our carbon footprint.

"In the near term we will bring in new ways of education and encouraging recycling - in particular we will be working with schools and colleges.

"We will work together to get our recycling rates up and amongst the best in the country."