UP to a quarter of the public bins in the city centre will be repaired or replaced in the coming months, after £30,000 was committed to a venture which is hoped will reduce the amount of litter on Salisbury's streets.

Salisbury City Council (SCC), Salisbury Business Improvement District (BID) and Wiltshire Council are jointly funding the project following concerns that many of the city's bins were falling into a state of disrepair.

The policy of Wiltshire Council is simply to take away bins which are broken, to avoid paying the £300 replacement cost. Less bins also means savings on collection costs.

However, councillors at Salisbury Area Board on Thursday agreed to use money set aside for community projects to fund the replacements. Equal contributions will be made by SCC and BID.

Chairman of Salisbury Area Board Richard Clewer said: "It was agreed when we met with SCC and BID that this was one of the priorities for the city. It is aimed at making Salisbury a more attractive place."

A survey of all the bins in Salisbury will now take place to decide which ones need to be replaced or repaired — but it is expected around 200 will need some form of work doing to them. It is hoped the bins will be replaced by September and will last for 15 years.

The funding comes after a year of talks between the three organisations.

Steve Godwin from Salisbury BID said: "As things fail, and they are failing quite rapidly, they are being taken away and not replaced. For example, the bin outside the White Hart, the door is hanging off.

"Between three and five bins have already been removed in the last month and we just can't sustain not having bins in the city.

"[The new bins] are expensive but they will last. The bins which are repairable will be taken away, repaired and put back again."