Recycling and waste in Powys will be collected on four days a week instead of five from this April, the county council has announced.

From April 2017, Powys County Council will collect all recycling and waste between Tuesdays and Fridays and will no longer collect on Mondays as part of plans to save £500,000 a year.

The changes will affect the majority of households in the county but the council will continue to collect recycling and food waste on a weekly basis and residual waste every three weeks.

As part of the change, households be notified of their new collections days but they will need to have their recycling and waste out ready for collection by 6.30am on their collection day.

Cllr John Powell, Cabinet Member for Waste and Recycling, said: “We are facing a significant budget shortfall and have to find savings of £29.8m over the next three financial years.

“As part of the budget response, our Highways, Transport and Recycling Service has been tasked with finding savings of approximately £2m a year for three years.

“By collecting recycling and waste on four days a week instead of five, we can avoid any disruption associated with bank holiday Mondays and plan our vehicle maintenance and training with less disruption. Where the bank holidays cannot be avoided, usually around Easter and Christmas, catch-up collection periods are greatly reduced.

“In addition to which we have undertaken a route optimisation exercise for our collection rounds and made them more efficient by reducing vehicle movements as part of the planned changes. These changes will help us meeting our budget saving targets.

“Households will continue to receive a weekly recycling and food waste collection and a three-weekly residual waste collection but they would need to put their containers out by 6.30am on their collection day.

“We will be informing households of their new collection days by post in the coming weeks.”