Richmond Council’s spokesman on the environment has rubbished suggestions that money has been wasted on the new refuse and recycling collection service.

Opposition councillors have accused Richmond Council’s administration of wasting in excess of £2m on the service, which was altered last November and has just been changed again.

But Councillor Martin Elengorn, Richmond Council cabinet member for environment, said the sums used to reach this figure were “incoherent and muddled” and rejected the assertion that money was wasted.

Last year, Richmond Council began collecting plastic and cardboard from doorsteps for the first time and, since that introduction, the recycling rate has risen to 42 per cent. But in an effort to simplify the service and reduce costs, changes have been made in recent months to issue new blue boxes, replacing white bags handed out last year, and collect more recycling in vehicles where it can be mingled.

Last week Coun Elengorn was given the power by his colleagues in the council’s executive to decide whether new vehicles would need to be bought to further improve the service, a decision he has yet to make.

Councillor Geoffrey Samuel, deputy leader of Richmond Conservatives, said taxpayers were being forced to pay for “squandered” resources spent on new containers, publicity, vehicle hire charges and extra staff.

Coun Elengorn said the increase in recycling rates had saved money on landfill costs and the new changes had been met with approval by residents.

“We will be going out to procurement to establish whether the financial and environmental arguments justify making further vehicle changes – they may or may not, and no decision has yet been made,” he continued. “Coun Samuel’s figures are incoherent and muddled and based on questionable assumptions.

“He doesn’t know too much about it – none of this is wasted money.

“We have now switched to collecting with a degree of mingling through the blue box and black box system, thus building further capacity into the system at an affordable price.”