WEE COUNTY residents wishing to have their garden waste uplifted may have to buy a permit as of next year.

Permits are likely to be introduced for the brown wheelie bin collection from next March.

The move first emerged in the budget for the current year for a "saving" of £130,000 and councillors will be asked to approve the fully developed scheme on Thursday, December 19.

An annual charge of £36 per bin is being proposed and future rises thereafter would be subject to approval by elected members.

Brown wheelie bins, used for domestic garden waste recycling, have up to this point been provided to around 22,000 properties in the Wee County between March and November each year.

However, documents to be tabled this week highlight that this is not a statutory service.

That means the council is under no legal obligation to collect garden waste and it is also able to charge for such a service.

Each household will be able to pay for up to two brown bins and collections will remain the same: once every three weeks over the nine months the scheme operates.

There was around 3,500tonnes of garden waste collected in the Wee County in 2018.

Officers of the local authority will be recommending the scheme for approval with documents saying that a "cost benefit" of £130k will be achieved if around 30 per cent of households take the service up.

At a take-up of 50 per cent, around 11,000 properties, the cost benefit would be around £290k.

A similar scheme in neighbouring Perth and Kinross Council, which served as a template, saw 54 per cent of households purchase a permit in the first year of operation, the same figure was 46 per cent for Angus Council.

Those who do not wish to purchase a permit will be encouraged to either visit the recycling centre at Forthbank in Alloa, free of charge, or try home composting.

Tenants of Clackmannanshire Council will have the costs covered by the Housing Revenue Account, however, with an expected contribution of £62,000.

Council documents said: "The housing service consulted with over 10 per cent of its tenant base and 85 per cent agreed with this proposal.

"Housing officers will engage with tenants to assist those who want a permit to gain appropriate access.

"Consultation has also taken place with Ochilview, Paragon and Kingdom housing associations and they are reviewing whether they can subsidise their tenants access to the scheme."

The papers to be tabled tomorrow also promise a "defined communications strategy" to make sure local residents are aware of the changes.

This will include a "comprehensive social media campaign" and letters sent to all households around two months before the change is in place.

Those who register will receive a sticker, which will go on the bin and will include the address of the property, to show they indeed have a permit.

People will be able to sign up at any point throughout the charging period, but there will be no part-year reductions.