OPPOSITION leaders have vowed to "fight tooth and nail" against Dudley Council's "ridiculous" plans to end to weekly bin collections and charge for the removal of green waste.

The Labour-led council wants to charge residents £30 a year for green waste collections and collect household rubbish and recycling on alternate weeks.

If approved, the charge to the green waste service will be introduced in February next year. It aims to save up to £1.34million by 2020 making the service cost neutral to the council.

The alternate weekly collections will be in place by April 2017 and save the authority £1million and council chiefs hope it will boost the amount of recycling the borough produces.

Leader of Dudley's Conservative group, Councillor Patrick Harley, said the Tories would be opposing the proposals.

He told the News: "At no point during the recent elections did Labour suggest charging for green waste collections or moving from a weekly black bin collection to a fortnightly one."

Cllr Harley said there was also no mention of the controversial plans in the budget making process and he said council bosses were giving the "feeble excuse about government cuts".

He added: "We will fight this tooth and nail to ensure weekly bin collections stay and that residents are not charged for green waste. Dudley didn't vote for this in May - it wasn't in any party’s election material and Labour for all their talk on being a community council have shown what they think of our communities by announcing this after the local elections.

"I hope for the sake of all Dudley residents UKIP will support our efforts to ensure weekly collections and the green waste collections stay as they are.

"This is not a time for them to sit back and abstain. They have been elected to make decisions - they either agree with this or they will join us in opposing what is a shameful proposal by an arrogant and out of touch administration."

Cllr Harley needn't worry, the purple party have vowed to fight it "all the way" according to Councillor Paul Brothwood, leader of Dudley's UKIP group.

He added: "Labour are breaking an election promise. I hope Tories follow our lead and vote against this ridiculous idea."

Councillor Pete Lowe, leader of Dudley Council, has blamed Conservative Party cuts for the proposal and he said: “Significant changes have got to be made.

“The vast majority of metropolitan boroughs moved to fortnightly bin collections many years ago. Our priority has got to be frontline services and looking after our elderly and our children.

“It’s an important service that people want to see maintained and people’s concerns are totally understandable – we’ve also got to have a dose of reality about where we are.”

He did, however, stress the council was looking at all options and added: “If there are any other options we’ll consider them.”

The plans will be discussed at Dudley Council's cabinet meeting on Wednesday June 29.