Cheshire East has no plans to scrap charges for bulky household waste removal arguing there is no link between charging and fly-tipping.

At Wednesday's meeting of the environment and communities committee at Sandbach Town Hall, Alsager resident Sue Helliwell asked if the council would consider axing the charges to remove bulky items in a bid to discourage fly-tipping.

Mrs Helliwell said: "Cheshire East Council does bulky waste collection but charges. Would you consider not charging as this would encourage residents not to fly tip large bulky items, ie mattresses and sofas which quite often are seen on our streets in Cheshire?"

But committee chair Mick Warren (Macclesfield East, Ind) told her: "There is no clear link between charging for bulky waste and levels of fly-tipping and therefore this is not something we are considering at present.

"The council sets bulky waste charges to provide sufficient funding to cover the service costs."

Mrs Helliwell had said: "Electric waste vehicles bring cleaner, quiet bin collections to our streets and hopefully one day Cheshire East Council will have its own fleet."

Cllr Warren said: "Our initial trial with two electric refuse collection vehicles has shown that, due to the distances involved, existing battery technology is not sufficient at present to be used all the time.

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"We would expect that technology, however, to improve in the coming years to allow electric refuse vehicles to be part of our fleet as we approach 2025."

He added the council was looking at alternative fuels.

Yesterday, we reported on plans for at least six bins per house in Macclesfield.

Here's how you can get your heavy household waste removed from your property.

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