CONSERVATIVE councillors in Cheshire East have requested to call in the council's decision to introduce a £56 charge for the collection of garden waste.

Last month, the council's environment and communities committee narrowly voted to launch the controversial charge - the highest among North West local authorities - in January.

Tory councillors on the committee voted against the proposal and now the Conservative Group has formally challenged the council's decision.

Should the referral request be accepted by the monitoring officer, the decision will be reviewed at the next meeting of full council where a fresh vote involving all councillors could take place.

Knutsford councillor Tony Dean, speaking on behalf of the Cheshire East Conservative Group, said: "Although other councils charge for green waste collection, Cheshire East Council is unusual in that it invested in its own purpose-built green waste hub at Leighton Grange, to be operated with a business partner.

"The business case was based on free home collections for maximum tonnage and the production of high quality compost for sale.

"No other viable alternatives have been brought forward by the administration for consideration by elected councillors and the income to be generated by the proposed charges, significantly exceeds the annual running costs of the green waste service.

"The green bin charge was proposed in the February budget and only narrowly approved in a 'yes/no’ vote at the recent environment and communities committee. 

"More than 60 per cent of respondents to the budget consultation did not support this proposal and there has been ongoing public opposition to the charge by many council tax payers.

"The referral request was sent to the council’s monitoring officer within the five-day call-in period and his decision is awaited."

At the recent environment and communities committee meeting, a council officer said the council 'had no alternative' but to bring in the charge because it needed to raise £4m to fill a funding gap.

When asked about the charge by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Mick Warren, chairman of the environment and communities committee, said: "As with any subscription scheme, there will always be variations with the fee that is set.

"The £56 subscription fee set for Cheshire East residents also reflects we only have a small shutdown period over the Christmas and New Year period for garden bin collections, unlike many other local authorities where this shutdown can be as much as 12 weeks plus.

"If residents choose not to opt-in to the garden waste subscription service, they can continue to dispose of their garden waste for free at our household waste recycling centres."