Bin taxes arrive... with a £40 charge for families ON TOP of their council tax bill

Tens of thousands of households will be charged 28p for every extra sack they leave out.

A family using three a week would pay £40 a year on top of their council tax bill.

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Councils around the country will be watching the progress of the scheme in Tory- controlled Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. Many are expected to follow suit.

But critics say the scheme - which had a four-month trial last year - is effectively a tax on large families.

Some believe the charges could even be illegal.

Under the scheme, designed to boost recycling, homes will be given one free official purple sack per week.

Anyone wanting more must buy them from the council at a 28p a time - five times as much as a supermarket bin liner.

Dustmen have been ordered to ignore rubbish left in black sacks or carrier bags.

Around a fifth of the town's 40,000 homes are expected to need extra bags. although families of six or more will be allowed two free ones.

The council, which gave the scheme the go-ahead last week, says the trial was a huge success.

The amount of non-recyclable rubbish fell 30 per cent, while recycling rates increased up to 76 per cent.

But many local people have serious doubts.

Jennifer Howard, 59, said: "I live with my husband and son and one bag definitely isn't enough.

"It has made me recycle more, but it's still confusing to know what should go in which container.

"Plastic bottles can be recycled, for instance, but the tops can't.

"The purple bags are quite big, but if you're talking about a family of two adults and two children you need two bags."

Susan Jones, 39, a production manager who took part in the trial, said: "I support recycling and we recycle everything. but this is like a tax on us.

"We were putting out three bags a week but we've managed to get it down to two.

"It's still confusing, though, knowing what we can put in the recycle boxes and bags and what we can't.

"If you are a low income family with young children and using three or four bags a week, then the cost is going to mount up."

Another resident said some families had started taking their waste to the recycling area in the car park of a nearby Sainsbury's store.

The Government is about to back five pilot schemes to reward people who recycle and penalise those who leave out too much rubbish.

Ministers have added a clause to the new Climate Change Bill to make it legal for councils to charge for collections.

Previously, local authorities have had a duty to collect rubbish for free.

Some locals say Broxbourne's bag charge - which has come in before the Climate Change Bill is made law - is illegal under the Environmental Protection Act.

But Jeff Stack, director of environmental services, said the council was still offering a free weekly collection.

He said: "The main purpose is to help encourage people to think more about what they can recycle."

Mr Stack also pointed out that the official purple bags, at 110 litres, hold more than old-style dustbins.

In the pilot scheme, around eight per cent of homes paid at least 56p a week and ten per cent paid 28p.

Mr Stack said: "This is not a tax - it is simply covering the costs of the scheme. We do not make a profit."

The council sees bag rationing as a better alternative to unpopular alternate weekly collections - in which food and non recyclable waste is collected one week and recyclable the next.

Under an EU Landfill Directive, Britain must cut the amount of biodegradable municipal waste being sent to landfill sites.

It requires a 25 per cent reduction on 1995 levels by 2010, and a 65 per cent cut by 2020.

Some councils have introduced fines of £100 if people fail to recycle.