Residents face a choice between being hit in the pocket or losing capacity in their main bin over plans to charge for green waste collection.

Hyndburn council will introduce the £30 annual subscription fee from the start of next month for residents who still want their garden waste to be collected separately by the council.

Bosses say those not wishing to subscribe to the service can either compost garden waste at home, take it to the tip themselves, or put garden waste in the grey refuse bin. Council bosses say the fee is necessary to cover reduced government funding and increasing costs, however opposition councillors fear it could lead to more fly-tipping incidents.

Oswaldtwistle county councillor Peter Britcliffe said: “There’s always a worry that an increase in charges will lead to an increase in fly-tipping and the situation is quite bad already as we all know.”

Conservative group leader Coun Tony Dobson claims it will lead to a ‘paperwork and administrative nightmare’.

Rubbish bins on an Accrington back street.

He said: “We seem to have a set of policies that make it harder and harder for people to get rid of their waste as part of their council tax, which is one of the few reasons why they’re paying it.

"We seem to be putting as many obstacles as possible in their way instead of trying to make it easier and cut down on what is the expensive bit, which is collecting fly-tipping around the borough.”

The fee will come into effect from August 1 and will cover collections between March and November.

Coun Paul Cox, cabinet member for environmental services, said the fee equates to only £1.60 per fortnightly bin collection and means they ‘can carry on delivering this service for households who want it’.

He said: “This brings us in line with most other councils in Lancashire and across the country who already operate a subscription service and we have not heard reports of increased fly-tipping of garden waste as a result.

"We will continue to offer a free collection service for real Christmas trees for all households in the borough.”

To subscribe visit www.hyndburnbc.gov.uk/garden-waste-subscription or call 01254 388111.