BROMSGROVE and Redditch councils have featured fourth in a top 10 list for the most expensive green waste collection charges that aren’t all year round.

The authorities charge £45 for a fortnightly collection, which runs from March to November.

Only Sheffield City Council (£47.50), Carmarthenshire County Council (£49.42) and Worcester City Council (£67.50) charges more in the category.

Harlow District Council residents are the most unfortunate, with a fortnightly green wheelie bin collection all year round the highest charge in the UK at £96 a year.

Flymo obtained the figures for every council in the UK.

The issue was also highlighted by BBC consumer series Rip Off Britain: Live, who, in their own research, found councils in the country raked in almost £74 million-a-year from the collections.

More than half (53 per cent) of UK councils now levy a charge for collecting green waste.

A Government spokesman said council’s must ensure charges are “reasonable”.

He added: “Councils will have £90.7 billion to spend on services over the next two years, and they should use that to meet the needs of their residents.

“Where councils charge people to get rid of garden waste, they must ensure the charges are reasonable, clear, and take into account the views of people in their area.”

A Local Government Association spokesman added: “Councils in England face an overall funding gap that will exceed £5 billion by 2020.

“Some councils were able to provide free garden waste services when they were first introduced but are now having to charge to reflect the growing cost of providing a collection service.

“Money from garden waste collection charges goes back into maintaining the service.”

A Redditch Council spokesman said: “The Garden Waste Service is £45 for the current year with collections running from March until the end of November (20 collections).

"This works out to just £2.25 for us to visit each customer’s property, which compares favourably with other services to your door such as Royal Mail and other retailers that charge delivery fees.

 “We collect just over a ton of waste from each of our customers per year, which is equivalent to collecting about 1400 double decker buses over the course of a year, which requires significant investment in machinery and staff.

"Most people do not garden during the winter months, so we pass that reduction in cost back to our customers, and in comparison with the national picture for garden waste services, we are around the average for providing this service.

"We are confident that we have struck a good balance between providing a useful service at an affordable price for our residents and at a sustainable level for the council.   

They added: “The service is optional so if anyone does not wish to use it but would still like to get rid of their green waste in an environmentally friendly way, they can also benefit from a heavily reduced home compost bin through us or visit a free household recycling site to dispose of their garden waste.”