A TORY councillor has slammed Bolton Council's decision to impose a charge for wheelie bins as "immoral".

At a meeting of the planning and environment committee, officers explained that the council spends more than £100,000 a year on wheelie bins.

By introducing a charge for bins from July 1 on the occupiers of all new houses, £30,000 could be raised to offset the costs.

Head of Environmental Management, Jeff Layer, said that although the council was reluctant to introduce charges, it was forced to look at ways of saving money on its cleansing budget.

He said: "It will initially target occupiers of new premises."

But he admitted that charges could spread to all householders eventually.

Suggested charges include £30 plus VAT for a 240 litre bin, to £20 plus VAT for a refurbished version.

Mr Layer said it was hoped that developers of new estates would purchase the bins on behalf of the residents.

But Cllr John Hanscomb blasted the charges as "bordering on the immoral".

He said wheelie bins were the result of the re-organisation of the collection of waste refuse by the authority.

"And it is only right that the consequences of that re-organisation remain with the authority. It's not fair that these people will be paying a further charge on top of the council tax."

His criticisms were supported by Liberal Democrat councillor, David Wilkinson, who said: "By getting people to put their bins outside saved us money and now we are saying thank you very much you can save us more money by buying your own bin. It seems very unfair on these people."

The charges will come into force on July 1 on all properties that are located on housing estates where the roads were not formally adopted on May 1, 1997, and where houses still remain to be occupied for the first time, and all new houses not occupied for the first time by May 1, 1997.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.