Council expected to approve garden waste charges

The plans aim to help plug at £19.2m financial gap in the council's budget

A council is expected to approve garden waste collection charges more than a decade after scrapping a similar scheme.

In 2012, nearly 20,000 North Tyneside residents received refunds after paying a £20 yearly fee to have brown bins emptied.

That scheme was scrapped when not enough people signed up to it, but a new plan is expected to generate about £660,000 a year, according to North Tyneside Council documents.

If approved at a cabinet meeting on 29 July, the proposals will see eligible households asked to pay a £30 annual charge.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council expects 22,000 households to sign up.

The service fee is payable in one transaction and cannot be spread out, but is the lowest among the North East's seven councils, the Labour-led local authority said.

A similar scheme recently launched in Middlesbrough saw the town's council forced to approve the purchase of 12,000 additional bins when demand outstripped supply and threatened to bring collections to a halt.