MERLIN Waste is the new company charged with collecting the contents of Swindon's dog waste bins.

The Forest of Dean-based business will take over from SDK Kilsyth, whose contract will be terminated by mutual agreement on Monday, on a five-year basis.

Ian Ashmoore, the council's team leader for environmental protection, said: "I'm really pleased because I was worried we might not have got anyone. But this is good news for everyone concerned and the price offered was very competitive.

"Merlin Waste is a small business that is looking to expand, but they have good experience. I'm sure they'll do a fine job."

Merlin Waste will collect and empty the contents of Swindon's 210 dog bins and the 114 in outlying parishes once a week and more frequently if demand necessitates.

The company beat West Oxfordshire District Council, the only other company to apply for the contract, to land the job.

Around 1.5 metric tonnes of dog excrement is removed from special bins across the borough each week. Torquay-based SDK decided to terminate their £20,000 contract because the task of driving a 185-mile round trip from their Slough base in Berkshire was proving uneconomical and a major task for its drivers.

There was concern that dog bins, like the one pictured above near Shaftesbury Lake, would overflow if a firm was not found to take on the contract.

If a new contract had not been secured by March 31 the responsibility of emptying the bins would have fallen to Swindon Services.