BIN bags are to get the elbow - as wheelie bins come to Lancaster in February.

The city council's cabinet decreed yesterday (Wednesday) that 12,181 households in Lancaster, parts of Heysham and Morecambe, Middleton, Overton, Halton, Priest Hutton and Borwick will receive wheeled bins.

The city will adopt a 'three-system method' of refuse collections in a bid to get more people to recycle by separating their waste into different bins.

The scheme, set to cost £230,000, will be funded by DEFRA, the Department for the Environment, Farming and Rural Affairs, for the coming year and will create 12 jobs.

Cllr Jon Barry said although only a few areas would be in at the launch of the scheme in February, he hoped all parts of the district would benefit.

He told the meeting that if the system did not go ahead it would be bad for both the environment and council finances.

"Every time rubbish is put in a landfill site, the County Council has to pay tax - which is high. The more we put in landfills, the more it costs us," he said.