Communal recycling bins could be coming to a street near you within six months – but will mean the loss of nearly 300 parking spaces.

After a mass consultation, Brighton and Hove City Council is to push ahead with its plan to introduce the giant containers for 32,000 households.

The local authority claims scrapping kerbside black boxes for every home in the city centre area will save money, declutter streets and make it easier for people to go green.

However, the council admitted the plan, which will be paid for from £800,000 of government funding, would see 272 of its 25,000 parking spaces lost.

If approved by councillors next week, the scheme will be introduced between October and March.

Pete West, chairman of the council’s environment committee, said: “Our extensive public consultation has revealed very strong public support for rolling out these new bins, and we know they will help save money and be more convenient than black boxes.

“We aim to pass part of the savings on to charities and local community groups to help encourage residents to do even more recycling.”

Councillors are expected to sign off on the plan for the area between Sackville Road in Hove and Arundel Road, Brighton, at its environment committee meeting on Tuesday.

A report to be discussed by members shows that a trial scheme of 3,000 homes in Brunswick and Adelaide last year saw recycling rates rise from 12.5 per cent to 21 per cent.

However the local authority admits the wider scheme will only increase city-wide recycling rates by three per cent.

During the consultation, 80 per cent of those who responded (4,649) said they would use the new bins.

The local authority admitted there would be a loss of £84,000 a year in parking revenue due to the loss of spaces.

However it claimed the savings on staff costs and waste disposal will mean a net saving of £475,000 over a six year period.

Conservative group leader Geoffrey Theobald said: “We believe that communal facilities are the best way to increase recycling rates in the city centre.

“However, this is already a heavily congested area and I fear we could see significant additional problems with parking.”

Labour councillor Gill Mitchell said: “It’s something that in principle we support. We do think it has potential to raise recycling levels, albeit to levels we saw in 2008.”

Coun Mitchell did question why the proposal was being brought forward as Cityclean workers were still in negotiations about changes to their working practices.