MORE than half of the households which once had an extra green wheelie bin for garden waste have returned them after Huntingdonshire District Council started charging for the service.

As of this week, HDC had received 4,573 requests to remove bins having introduced a £40 fee for emptying more than one per home.

Out of the 8,500 homes who took advantage of the service when it was free, 3,237 have so far paid to continue.

A further 918 invoices remain unpaid and a council spokesman confirmed the intention was to collect up extra bins if no payment was received.

The charging policy was introduced by HDC in July because it wanted to save money on collection rounds.