MALVERN Hills residents can now have their say on the future of rubbish collection in the district by simply logging on to their computers.

As part of an ongoing consultation on waste collection methods Malvern Hills District Council has launched an online survey to allow more residents to have their say.

The council is considering three options for the future of rubbish collection: * A weekly combined sack service using twin-bodied vehicles with more space for black bags than recycling. This is similar to the current service.

* A weekly combined sack service using twin-bodied vehicles with equal space for recycling and black bags.

* Alternate weekly wheelie bin service. Black bags one week, recycling the next.

MHDC has already held focus groups and mailed out its questionnaire to a large number of residents selected at random. The online questionnaire is intended to allow anyone else that wants to have a say to voice their opinions before the results are fed back to the council’s waste management board.

The council is then expected to make a final decision based on the waste board’s recommendation this autumn.

MHDC is looking at the future of waste collection as its fleet of waste collection vehicles is due for renewal by 2011. Local authorities are also under pressure to meet challenging government targets for increasing recycling and reducing the amount of waste going to landfill.

Although MHDC’s recycling rate is currently a healthy 27 per cent, the target rate for Worcestershire by 2015 is 45 per cent.

To fill in the survey visit malvernhills.gov.uk Anyone without access to their own computer is encouraged to fill in the survey by visiting their local Customer Service Centre.