CONTROVERSIAL plans requiring gardeners to pay to have their waste taken away may be shelved for a year, it has been revealed.

Durham County Council announced last year that the only way it could continue to run its kerbside garden waste recycling scheme was if householders paid an annual fee to use it.

The charge was to have been introduced in April, but the authority will now considering keeping the service free until spring 2015, when an annual fee of £20 will be introduced.

If the council’s cabinet agree a report next week, a further 35,000 households will become eligible to opt in to the scheme, taking the total number to 186,000. In Teesdale the service will continue under the third sector group Rotters.

Each home taking up the annual subscription will receive 16 collections. Moving to a small annual fee will also allow the council to make the necessary saving of £933,000 for this service, the authority says.

Cabinet member for neighbourhoods and local partnerships, Councillor Brian Stephens, said: “I am very pleased we will be able to continue to offer this service in 2015 to those households wishing to opt in.

“There is clearly enough support to make kerbside collections with a small annual opt in fee viable and the fact that an additional 35,000 people will now have the choice to take it up if they would like to is excellent."

The county council faces required budget reductions of more than £224m (2011 – 2017) due to large reductions in Government grants.

While local authorities are not obliged to provide garden waste collections, of those which do, more than 35 per cent already charge separately for the service. 

Lib Dem Councillor Mark Wilkes said: “The whole plan makes no sense and we will continue to push for the charging scheme to be scrapped.

"There are so many unanswered questions and opposition councillors believe the council plans do not stack up financially and that the overwhelming proportion of County Durham residents are against this garden tax.

"We stopped this going ahead this year, now we will push to stop it coming in next year."

Cabinet members will be asked to approve the introduction of the new scheme when they meet at County Hall on Wednesday March 19.

In North Yorkshire, Richmondshire District Council ratepayers wishing to keep green bins and continue with fortnightly collections now need to pay £17 a year.