The council is considering rewards for not overfilling bins

Plans to charge residents for any side waste were suspended last year just days after being introduced.

Now the authority hopes to encourage homeowners to put out less rubbish - rather than penalise them if their bins do not close properly.

The nature of the rewards has not been decided but councillors were warned the policy could cause further problems.

There was a public backlash against the charging policy when it was introduced in November.

I can see a scenario where people are rushing around dumping things in other people's bins so that theirs is empty Cllr Marjory McQueen

Wheelie bins were not emptied if their lids were not shut properly and extra waste had to be placed in bags supplied by the council at 50p a time.

The authority later admitted it had got things wrong and decided to look at the situation again.

Now they have agreed to drop the policy altogether and consider replacing it with some kind of incentive scheme.

"We have got to educate the people first of all and try to get people to cut down their waste and see if we can get it within one wheelie bin," said council convener Tommy Sloan.

"Let's look at some way of rewarding people who do stick within this regime.

"Meantime, we will be continuing to pick up any side waste."

Other issues

However, Cllr Marjory McQueen warned that a change in policy could raise other issues.

"I can see a scenario where people are rushing around dumping things in other people's bins so that theirs is empty," she warned.