Wyre agrees to charge for green bin collections

The decision comes as the authority faces a loss of £980,000 funding from Lancashire County Council, which part-funded the recycling service, along with ongoing reductions in funding from central government.

The charges will be implemented in Spring 2016 despite Lancashire County Council not pulling its funding until 2018.

Under the new arrangements, due to come into effect next spring, residents wishing to subscribe to the service will pay an annual fee of £30 to have their green bins emptied 22 times a year, which equates to £1.36 per collection. A reduced fee will be applied to additional green bins.

Paid for collections will allow residents who subscribe to continue having their garden waste removed and at the same time recoup some of the money needed to deliver the service.

Councillor David Henderson, cabinet member with responsibility for recycling at Wyre Council, said: "We have had no choice but to look at changing how we operate due to Lancashire County Council ending a cost sharing agreement, resulting in a loss of £980,000 to Wyre.

"Despite requests to reconsider or scale down the withdrawal of funding to lessen the impact on the districts in the county, the decision has been made and we now have to mitigate that impact.

"Garden waste collections have been provided across Wyre without charge since 1999 however it is now necessary that we join other local authorities up and down the country in charging in order to keep the service running."

A Wyre spokesman said: "Lancashire County Council's funding towards the recycling service was reduced in 2013 and although it doesn't come to a complete end until 2018, we need to take action now to mitigate the impact of losing almost £1m a year.

County has also indicated its intention to change how food waste is processed by April 2016 which will mean that food will no longer go in green bins (home composting or grey bins will be used), so it makes sense to implement these changes at the same time."

Those who don't subscribe to the new service will have to deal with their garden waste in other ways.

In Blackpool, green bin collections are set to be scrapped and garden waste sent to landfill.

Town hall bosses want to axe the fortnightly green waste collection to save cash in the face of heavy budget cuts.Residents will instead be told to use their grey bins, take their waste to their local tip, create a compost heap, or pay for a private collection.