Cuts to Wolverhampton bin collections

And plans are also being drawn up for around 300 homes who were given a second green wheelie bin because of their large gardens to be made to either hand them back or pay an additional fee for them.

Wolverhampton City Council says it will not empty the green wheelie bins at all from December 1 to March 27. It follows a decision last year to reduce the collections from every fortnight to every four weeks in winter to save money.

But the cash-strapped authority says it can save £80,000 a year towards the £123 million of cuts it has to make over five years by scrapping winter rounds altogether.

Does your garden waste get collected in the winter? Leave your comments below.

The Labour-run council said the collection of garden waste is 'not a statutory service' and many other councils – including Walsall and Dudley – do not provide a winter collection service.

See also: BINgo! Win £1,000 for recycling your scraps.

Around 87 per cent of green waste from Wolverhampton is collected over spring, summer and early autumn. Conservative councillor Jonathan Yardley said: "This will be counter productive. People will just end up putting their garden rubbish in black sacks and throwing it away with the other rubbish."

If the council stops collecting your garden waste in the winter, would you be tempted to throw it away with the rest of your rubbish? Leave your comments below.

Birmingham City Council sparked controversy by imposing a £35-a-year charge for garden waste collections. It has led to an increase in fly-tipping and gridlock at council run tips.

See also: Walsall residents forced to fork out £30k on replacement bins.

Councillor John Reynolds, Wolverhampton's cabinet member for city services, said: "Because use of the green bins drops dramatically over winter, we've decided to stop the service between December and March.

"People will still be able to take garden waste to our two household waste and recycling centres at Shaw Road and Anchor Lane through winter."

Council spokesman Tim Clark added: "We only supply one bin per household. We are looking at introducing a policy where we would supply households with an additional bin if they pay an annual charge to cover the costs of disposing of garden waste. We cannot afford to collect garden waste from more than one green bin without recovering costs."

He said the additional bins for people with larger gardens was down to an administrative error, 'an anomaly and never council policy'.

The council's waste and recycling contractor Amey will deliver the annual collection date calendars to all households with information about when people's exact final green bin collection dates will be and when they will restart.

How could the council make further savings? Leave your comments below.