The stickers appearing on brown bins across Preston

Just over 13 per cent of Preston households with a brown bin have paid for it to be collected from July.

Preston City Council says it is expecting a ‘last minute surge’ as tens of thousands of households face having their brown bin removed.

The green waste collection service was introduced by the city council who say the move will save it more than £500,000-per-year.

Households with a brown bin need to pay £25-a-year to have it emptied every fortnight. The scheme has already raised £126,600 for the city council running at its discounted £20-a-year rate.

Around 400 people a day are signing up to the scheme, with the city council’s waste management service saying the number of paid up households standing at 6,333 against a total of 46,000 homes with a brown bin.

Cabinet member for environment councillor Robert Boswell said: “It’s in line with our expectations. The experience of other areas that have also introduced charges for green waste, suggests there is a slower uptake at first.

“That’s why we introduced the early bird rate of £20 to encourage people to get their green bin collection sorted early. The deadline for this is 19th June when it goes up to £25 so hopefully as many people as possible sign up before then and don’t leave it to the last minute.”

A charge is being made for each brown bin collected by the council

Homes who have paid the charge are beginning to receive stickers to go on their bins.

These will inform binmen of who has paid the charge, and the council confirmed electronic screens within the bin lorries will also hold the information.

Changes from 4 July also mean the city council says food waste should no longer be put into brown bins, but composted or put into black bins instead. It says it has no statutory duty to collect food waste so is discontinuing the service.

Have you paid the charge? Will you be or are you boycotting it? Let us know your views in the comments below