TWO areas of Kendal are to get fortnightly plastic and cardboard recycling collections this year.

And longer term plans are in the pipeline for the council to start collecting clothes and electrical items from the kerbside in future also.

The Lib Dem-run Cabinet of South Lakeland District Council last week agreed to roll out collection of plastic and cardboard from homes.

It will cover what the council describes as the southern and eastern parts of the town, including the Heron Hill and Bellingham Road areas.

The plan is to roll it out district-wide eventually.

It follows successful trials in Burneside and parts of Kendal which started in 2012 and involved 7,500 homes.

For the first time, residents had their plastics and cardboard collected, in addition to existing collections of paper, glass and cans.

Residents filled in feedback questionnaires with the results showing support for more kerbside recycling.

Looking ahead, the council wants to further extend what it collects to include textiles, small electrical items and food waste.

The council has a target to achieve a 50 per cent recycling rate. In 2012/13, it was achieving a 43 per cent rate.

South Lakeland District Councillor, Sue Sanderson, Lib Dem portfolio holder for environment and people, said: “We want to do this to provide the best value service for our residents.

“By extending the range of items that we collect through kerbside recycling it helps the environment, reduces the amount of residual waste we have to deal with, creates income and also helps us to meet our recycling targets.

“This decision sets out our direction of travel – we hope to be able to extend the range of recyclables to every area of South Lakeland in the next three years. That is where we want to be and it is a very ambitious aim.”

The council is also looking at replacing some of the vehicles used to collect recycling as they are over 10-years-old.

It is testing replacement vehicles to ensure it gets those best suited to operating in South Lakeland.