SCRUTINY committee members are urging Cheshire East Council not to go ahead with unpopular plans to charge up to £35 for replacement wheelie bins.

The local authority revealed plans to introduce charges for new and replacement bins in its budget for 2018-19, with CEC hoping to save as much as £360,000 a year as a result.

But just 34 per cent of the 1,895 residents who responded to a recent consultation agree with the policy – and now members of CEC’s environment and regeneration overview and scrutiny committee have recommended that replacement bins should remain free of charge.

At a meeting on Monday, Cllr Sarah Pochin, Conservative CEC member for Willaston and Rope, suggested the committee should not support the charge considering the strength of public opinion.

She said: “It would appear that from the consultation, unsurprisingly, nobody agrees that we should be paying for our bins. The majority agree that it should come out of our council tax.

“I personally think that the provision of a bin is an absolutely basic, fundamental thing that CEC or any other council should be providing to a household.”

CEC wants to introduce a £35 charge for black residual waste bins, a £30 charge for recycling and garden waste bins and a £25 charge for smaller bins.

Results from the consultation, which took place from March 13 to May 21, show that the proposal is most unpopular among residents in the south of the borough – with just 26 per cent of respondents supporting it in Crewe, Alsager and Shavington.

In Haslington 29 per cent of residents supported the move, while 30 per cent approved it in Sandbach and 33 per cent in Middlewich.

The proposal was most popular in Prestbury and Poynton, where 50 per cent of respondents agreed to the move, along with 49 per cent of respondents in Goostrey and Holmes Chapel, and 47 per cent in Knutsford.

In Macclesfield and Bollington 46 per cent supported the move, while 45 per cent of respondents in Handforth, Alderley Edge and Wilmslow were in favour of the charges.

Cllr Nick Mannion, Labour CEC member for Macclesfield West and Ivy, told the committee that the policy would hit residents in more deprived areas the hardest.

He said: “I was at a meeting, at a primary school where I’m the chairman of governors, about how we are going to provide a food bank during the summer so the kids who get free school meals are going to get fed.

“People are just not going to have a bin, and what you are going to have is people pinching other people’s bins or dumping rubbish in other people’s bins.

“The reality is if it’s a choice between feeding the kids, paying the electricity or buying a new bin because it has disappeared for whatever reason, I know what’s not going to get done.”

The council claims it is currently supplying 10,000 new or replacement bins a year free-of-charge, at a total cost to the local authority of up to £360,000.

As part of the plans, CEC says it could include the address of the property each bin belongs to, in a bid to deter thefts – while a 25 per cent discount to residents who receive benefits would also be offered.

Cllr Don Stockton, Conservative CEC member for Wilmslow Lacey Green and cabinet member for the environment, is set to make the final decision on whether or not to introduce the charge.

He reminded the committee that the council already agreed to the charge in principal by approving this year’s budget – and suggested that CEC would not be alone in charging residents for bins.

“It’s a major cost for this council in terms of replacing bins that just go missing or get destroyed,” Cllr Stockton said.

“A lot of our neighbours charge for bins. This is by no means unique at all. Halton charges £27.50 for a bin, Manchester £20 for a bin, Stockport varies, High Peak £30 for a bin, Staffordshire Moorlands £30 a bin.”

Cllr Pochin’s proposal to recommend charges are not introduced for replacement bins was approved by the committee by eight to three.