AN end to the Wear Valley wheelie bin saga could be in sight after a council more than 200 miles away revealed it was in talks to buy them.

Councillors will meet today to discuss the future of the 15,000 bins being stored on farmland near Crook, County Durham, at a cost to taxpayers of £1,250 a month.

The bins are the first half of an order placed by Wear Valley District Council, in County Durham, after it reviewed its waste and recycling schemes.

The council agreed a £560,000 deal with Otto Environmental Systems for 30,000 wheelie bins.

The scheme included proposals to switch from weekly to fortnightly rounds, collecting waste one week and recyclables the next.

Labour councillors, who were then in the majority, said they had the full backing of all members when they agreed the move at meetings held between 2005 and last year.

But Lib Dems and independent councillors withdrew their support for the scheme ahead of elections last year.

The authority became a hung council in May last year, so the plans were put on hold.

Broadlands District Council, in Norfolk, is in talks to buy the bins because there is a national shortage. A spokesman said: "A colleague from our environmental services department did some research and contacted Wear Valley District Council to express an interest in the bins."

Meanwhile, North-West Durham MP Hilary Armstrong has written to Wear Valley council leader Tommy Taylor to express her anger at the situation.

She said: "Following scaremongering stories in the press, the independents and the Liberal Democrats said they would not support the bins being emptied on an alternate weekly basis, going back on previous agreements.

"I am concerned that my constituents are unknowingly paying towards the cost of storing recyclable bins because of disagreements between council members."

Coun Taylor said: "We accept that this is an urgent issue and we must decide what to do as a group.

"If we can come to an agreement on a weekly collection, then we might not have a problem."