SWINDON Council has announced some of the bags which were fly-tipped following the introduction of a charge for green waste earlier this year are to be collected.

Since April, residents have had to pay a charge of £40 per year to have their waste collected, with more than 12,000 people signing up to the scheme since it was launched.

However, there have been reports of an increase in bags of green waste being dumped by those who refuse to pay the charge.

Initially, the council said these bags would not be collected in a bid to send a message that fly-tippers would not get a free service.

But it has now been announced that some will be picked up to help ease the problem, a move which has been welcomed in one area which has seen a large pile-up of bags.

Coun Fay Howard (Lab, Liden, Eldene and Park South) said: “It’s great news that the council will finally disperse the green waste fly-tipping.

“My fellow Labour councillors and I have been urging the council to take this action, as what we have found since the council has stopped collecting green waste fly-tipping is that that more and more bags have been piling up.

“Sadly, it seems the sight of fly-tipping only encourages some people to fly-tip even more and that is why this action is so necessary.

“If this decision hadn’t been taken, then certain areas of Swindon would have become blighted with this waste.”

The cabinet member responsible for waste collection, Coun Brian Ford (Con, Wroughton and Wichelstowe), said it would not become a regular occurence.

“What we are not going to do is reward people who are breaking the law,” he said.

“This is something we will do as and when but we do not want to send the message out that people can just dump rubbish and the council will come and pick it up.”

In the first six months since the green waste charge was introduced, the council say they have exceeded the level of savings they had anticipated.

In a report set to go before scrutiny committee next week, Coun Ford says: “The savings target set for 2014/15 as a result of this service change was £720,000 and to date savings of £729,000 have been achieved.

“The service has run very well despite difficulties with the green waste vehicles; this has provided additional challenges to the collection crews but they have adapted admirably to ensure that the service runs effectively.”

However, the level of success is disputed by opposition members, who point to the long queues seen at Cheney Manor.

Coun Howard said: “It is true that the number of residents taking up the service is more than the council had projected, but it is also true that queues at the Waste and Recycling Centre are as high as they have ever been because of this, so I can’t see how anybody can see this new service as being a success.”