Council bosses are in talks to provide more weekly food waste collections beyond Norwich's fringe parishes after failing in their bid for government cash.

Broadland District Council had expressed an interest in securing a share of a £250m fund designed to help UK local authorities develop weekly collections.

The authority would have received funding for three of the five years if its bid had been approved, and earmarked £170,000 in its budget to fund the remaining two years.

But now the council is negotiating with its waste contractor about extending its food waste collections in the future.

Broadland says it has yet to find out how much this will cost or how many houses could be added to its rounds.

The council's food waste collection service involves two bins.

One is a small container known as a caddy, which is used to collect waste in the kitchen.

The rubbish is then transferred to a larger container kept outside.

There are 10 areas in Broadland which currently receive the service, including Thorpe St Andrew, Sprowston and Hellesdon.

Norwich City Council and South Norfolk Council also jointly bid with Broadland for £1.8m of government cash.

It was estimated this money had the potential to provide food waste collections for an extra 38,000 properties.

The city council suggested the application failed as the government was 'heavily biased' in favour of authorities hoping to retain or restart weekly black bin services.

Great Yarmouth was among the successful bids.

richard.wheeler@archant.co.uk