Now pay 8 pounds a time to get your bin emptied

Furious critics last night accused Labour of encouraging a triple whammy for taxpayers over one of the most fundamental council services.

Families reeling from soaring council tax bills and depleted local services are now forking out more than £8 a time to get their bins emptied. The private rubbish collection services plug the gap left by fortnightly council collections in which rubbish is picked up one week and recyclable waste the next.

Doretta Cocks, of the Campaign for Weekly Waste Collection, said: “Why should people pay twice – through council tax and then to a private firm – to have their waste taken away? The demand for these services shows that fortnightly collections do not work.”

She added that householders should check to ensure any private firms have the appropriate waste licence.

Under new laws, householders are responsible for their own waste – and if it ends up being flytipped and is traced back to them they could be fined up to £50,000.

Matthew Elliott, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “The fact that a new service has come along shows how shambolic rubbish collection has now become.

“Council tax has doubled in the past 10 years. Councils should get their act together and provide a first-class service because council tax payers are already paying for it.”

Fortnightly collections discriminate against larger families, increase flytipping and create health hazards by encouraging flies and rats, critics claim.

About 200 councils have already dropped weekly collections in favour of “alternate weekly collections”, while one in three will not empty bins unless the lid is fully closed.

Councils can also fine households that do not recycle enough.

Shadow Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles yesterday blamed the Labour Government – which argues that fortnightly collection schemes encourage recycling – for the crisis.

“This Government has hit the taxpayer with a triple whammy,” he said.

“Gordon Brown has slashed front-line services such as rubbish collections, while council taxes have doubled.

“Now after relentlessly raiding the pockets of the public, Labour expects people to shell out and pay more for having their rubbish taken away on top of paying their council taxes.”

He said Tory councils are leading the way on recycling, but added: “Bin Brother tactics and new stealth taxes aren’t the answer. It must be made easier for councils actively to help people go green.”

Town hall bosses also claim recycling is boosted by fortnightly collections. But fed-up householders are now making their own arrangements.

One firm, WasteConcern, advertises nationally using the image of an overfull bin, burst bin bags on the ground, a swarm of flies and a rat as a reminder of what householders face.

The advert asks: “Do you need an extra rubbish collection? Fed up with fortnightly bin collections, or have too much excess waste? Concern-ed about the health issues?

“Fed up of queuing at your local tip to get rid of your excess rubbish?”

The firm, based in Barnet, north London, says it offers a “professional rubbish collection service". Its charges for removing waste starts at £7.03 plus VAT – bringing the cost to more than £8 per collection.

WasteConcern also claims that it separates out recyclable material at its depots – saving householders the chore of putting their rubbish into separate bins.

Managing director Spencer Feldman, 34, said: “Councils have opened up a demand where possibly there should not be one. There was no demand 10 years ago because people had weekly collections, but nowadays people have problems with the ways their waste is disposed of.

“We are helping to meet recycling targets because by collecting waste regularly more is being recycled.”

And he believes business will continue to boom. “We believe there will be a constant growth in demand as councils make things more difficult,” he added. Britain faces fines of up to £3billion under EU laws from 2010 if we do not reduce the volume of rubbish sent to landfill.

A Local Government Association official said fortnightly collections increased recycling. He added: “If a private firm wish to set up an operation to collect extra rubbish, that is entirely their choice.

“But evidence shows that after a year of a new system being introduced, people’s recycling habits change and the vast majority of residents are extremely happy with their new alternate-week system.”