EAST Lothian councillors have approved plans to charge housing developers thousands of pounds to provide bins to new homes.

A meeting of the Labour-led council’s cabinet on Tuesday agreed new charges of £67 per house for a set of bins for every new household.

It will not include a charge for garden waste bins, which are due to be paid for by annual subscription by residents themselves in the future.

A report on the proposed charges highlighted that East Lothian was one of the fastest growing council areas in Scotland with "significant housing developments, in build or planned across the county".

READ MORE: Plans to charge developers for supplying new homes with bins

It said the council currently spent about £160,000 a year providing new homes with bins and maintaining the current stock.

East Lothian residents currently have six separate bins or containers for every household: a green household waste bin; brown garden waste bin; blue recycling box for paper and cardboard; a black or green box for glass; a white bag for plastic, metal and cartons; and a food waste caddy.

At their budget meeting earlier this year, councillors agreed a charge would be introduced from next year for garden waste collections.

The report to cabinet said introducing a charge for new housing would bring in £6,700 per 100 new homes.

Councillors were told: “Local authorities across the UK have a variety of different policies on charging for waste and recycling containers, with some charging for the supply of all containers to both new and existing properties, some for replacement containers only and some for the supply of containers to new properties only.

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“Others provide recycling containers free, but charge for non-recyclable waste containers.”

Bruce Moffat, the council’s transport and waste service manager, told the meeting the charge had been kept low to try and discourage developers from buying bins from other suppliers.

He said: “The cost recovery is based on the purchase price with a small percentage for delivery costs within that.

“We have kept the costs low to ensure they use our containers that are compatible with our service. This will make it more attractive to developers and avoid the use of other types of containers and other receptacles being used.”

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The charges for bins will be included in the planning process and set out early in applications.

Councillor John McMillan welcomed the proposed charges.

He said: “We have to look at alternatives all the time to achieve the budget challenges to ensure the wellbeing of our communities and I think this is a totally appropriate charge.”

The charge was approved unanimously.