THURROCK Council has rejected a call for garden waste bins to be collected weekly to prevent an "environmental catastrophe".

The council introduced an £80 per annum garden waste collection in April but bins are only emptied fortnightly leading some residents to dump waste a resident has claimed.

Speaking at a council meeting on Thursday, Peter Perrin said: "Those who choose not to pay will have no choice other than to initiate their own methods of disposal of garden waste.

"While most people may dispose of their garden waste responsibly others may not be so obliging."

Mr Perrin added: "Since the council announced the introduction of the £80 charge for each bin I have noticed an increase in my area of the burning of such waste, even setting fire to overgrown open ground. This is an environmental catastrophe to say nothing of the nuisance caused and the possible threat to the health, safety and wellbeing of those affected by such fires.

"No doubt some people will resort to fly tipping as a means of disposal of their garden waste or dump it in the garden waste bins of those who have paid the charge."

Mr Perrin suggested an alternative system of a smaller charge for weekly collections of the bins from April to September with collections and charges suspended from October to march . He said: "There must be a better and fairer system for dealing with this problem, a system that does not adversely impact upon the environment. With this in mind, will the council consider providing every household with the proper means of disposal of garden waste, a waste bin that is regularly emptied by a council waste service."

John Kent, leader of the council, said the "bankrupt" council couldn't afford to drop the current scheme. He said: "That really isn't something we can do. Putting together the charge for the brown bin and moving to fortnightly collections saves the council £2.8m. That's the equivalent of 4 per cent council tax and as a bankrupt council that isn't something we can undo.

"We do however have to keep these things under surveillance and scrutiny and I would ask the place overview and scrutiny committee, when we've had the first full year of the system, carries out a piece of work to see how it's gone and what changes might be made in the future."