GOVERNMENT plans to allow more waste to be incinerated will have no impact on Bolton's controversial alternate weekly bin collection, town hall bosses revealed.

Hopes had been raised that plans to allow more rubbish to be burnt at sites such as Raikes Lane would lead to a relaxation on the strict recycling targets faced by local authorities.

But Cllr Roger Hayes, executive member for environmental services at Bolton Council, said there were no plans to let up on the drive to recycle.

He said: "As far as the Government is concerned, allowing more waste to be incinerated will not impact on the percentage of waste we recycle."

Around 55,000 homes are covered by the alternate weekly bin collections scheme, expected to be extended to the remaining areas of Bolton by the end of February.

The council is on course to reach the 20 per cent recycling target set by the Government by March.

But a 33 per cent target comes into force in 2010/11 and a 50 per cent target after that.

A Defra paper, to be published next month, is expected to say the proportion of burned waste could rise from 9 per cent to 25 per cent in the next 15 years.

It urges making "energy from waste", a process in which incinerators are used to power electricity generation plants.

A spokesman for the councils environmental services department said that there were no plans to use the incinerator at Raikes Lane to create "green energy."