Sutton councillors voted through major changes to the borough's waste collection service on Monday night.

Private contractor Veolia is to take over the service, currently run in-house, from April.

The shake-up comes after the South-West London Waste Partnership, which comprises of Sutton, Croydon, Kingston and Merton councillors, jointly chose the company to collect waste across the four boroughs.

The contract will mean a number of changes to the service in Sutton from spring next year.

Non-recyclable household waste, currently collected in brown bins each week, will only be picked up fortnightly.

New weekly food waste collections will be introduced. The council says discarded food currently accounts for 40 per cent of household waste in brown bins, meaning less will go into landfill under the new system.

Recyclable waste will continue to be collected in alternate weeks. Paper and card will be picked up in existing green bins one week, while plastic, tin and glass will be collected the next week in new recycling boxes.

The maximum amount of recyclable waste collected from each household every month will rise from 480 litres to 810 litres, taking into account food waste.

Fortnightly garden waste collections will be extended for paying households from nine months to year-round. These are currently charged at £54 a year for a 140-litre bin, £59 a year for a 240-litre bin and £94 a year for two 240-litre bins. A new flat rate of £61.50 a year will be introduced in April.