A major change to the way bins are collected in Liverpool could affect thousands of people.
An overhaul of collections could mean people who live in homes backing onto nine-foot alleys in the city would have their bins collected from their back gates.
Cabinet member for streetscene James Noakes told a council meeting last night that households backing on to wider alleys in the city currently have to take their rubbish to a specific point but said that could be about to change.
He confirmed to members of the neighbourhoods select committee that the council was trying to push ahead with changes to those collections.
Councillor Noakes said: "We will be looking at a gate to gate collection from nine-foot alleyways.
"Rather than people taking them to the end of the alleyways we will be taking them from people's back gates and returning them afterwards."
He said he hoped the move could help both push up recycling rates and improve the tidiness of the city's alleys, many of which suffer from problems with rubbish tipping and rats.
The plans were first announced last year as part of a major overhaul of the city's ageing Victorian alleyways - and would affect 38,000 households.
The wider improvement project has also seen refurbishment of narrower four-foot alleways that are in poor condition.
£1.5m was spent on the improvement programme in its first year, with plans for a total of £6m to be spent over three years.
