A political row is brewing over recycling, less than five months before half of Oxford City Council's 48 seats are up for grabs.

The Town Hall's ruling Labour group has drawn up plans for a multi-million pound wheelie bin scheme in the city, but it has come under fire from opposition councillors, amid claims the project is being forced through.

Pending the results of public consultation, which ends in March, every home in the city will get a wheelie bin and a set of recycling boxes later this year. However, Liberal Democrat councillors claimed the new refuse collection arrangements were being "forced down the throats of people in Oxford" and wanted to delay the scheme.

But they failed in an attempt to call in a decision made by the authority's decision-making executive last week, which gave the go-ahead for the new waste scheme to start in October. The Lib Dems said this would give councillors time to examine the small print of the scheme and given the public more time to comment.

Liberal Democrat councillor Alan Armitage said: "Lib Dems support the need to increase recycling from the miserably low levels we're at now.

"However, all residents will be affected by these changes and everybody needs to be given the chance to understand exactly what is proposed and to give their views.

"Instead, Labour is trying to short-circuit the consultation process and to avoid any serious questioning of their decision.

"We are talking about a huge amount of taxpayers money here. People should be given a chance to say whether they think this is a good use of their money. Better to get things right first time, rather than rushing into the wrong solution." John Tanner, the executive member for the environment, said the new arrangements would improve the city's current recycling rate of 17 per cent to 45 per cent within two years.

Green leader Craig Simmons said: "Their concerns are premature. The council is still deciding on the money to allocate to the scheme, which will include funds for consultation."