A NEW charge for collecting garden waste in East Lothian has seen more than 90 per cent of those who use the service for free sign up.

East Lothian Council ends its free brown bin collections next month with those wanting to carry on paying an annual fee of £35 for a permit.

A total of 19,600 people living in the area, known as the Garden County, registered for the collection permit ahead of the cut off date in May – almost all of the 22,000 who previously had their brown bins collected for free.

A council spokesperson said: “Around 19,600 household properties have been signed up for the fortnightly garden waste service from July, which represents the vast majority of regular users of the free monthly service.

“A permit sticker to go on the brown bin and collection calendar will be sent to registered properties in early June in time for the fortnightly service beginning in July.

“This will show the address and permit number for the registered property and the expiry date of the permit. There are no plans to remove any brown bins, as these may be required by occupants of properties in future.

“The council is looking at an additional sign-up window for this year, however, a timeline for this is still to be confirmed.”

The local authority recently moved household waste collections from fortnightly to every three weeks and will change garden waste collection from monthly to fortnightly.

Residents in the county also have a food recycling caddy, separate boxes for glass and paper and a white bag for plastic, tins and cartons which are collected weekly.