RESIDENTS across the Eastleigh area will be asked to pay a further £18 a year in a bid to keep the borough top of the recycling heap.

A new green waste collection service, costing 36p per week, is set to be rolled across the area.

The authority continues to be in the top ten nationwide for the amount of refuse it recycles - currently more than 31 per cent of the total waste collected.

With this new service reaping a bumper crop of leftover garden trimmings that figure is expected to rise by at least a further five per cent.

The council's direct services team will push out the new service across the whole borough in September.

Then the residents in Eastleigh, Bishopstoke, Fair Oak, Hamble and Netley will be able to join the rest of the borough in getting their garden waste collected direct from their doorsteps.

Already residents in Chandler's Ford, Horton Heath, Boorley Green, Botley, Hedge End, West End, Bursledon and Netley can subscribe to the scheme.

A successful pilot project was launched in Chandler's Ford last October and since then more than 1,000 tonnes of garden waste has been collected.

It is taken to a special composting site and turned into Pro-Grow soil conditioner.

In return for a single annual payment of £18, residents are provided with a reusable collection sack that is emptied weekly on a specified day, reducing the need to queue up at the tip to get rid of garden waste.

The new service will replace the plastic bag and card garden waste service which is being phased out over the coming months.

But the leader of a town centre residents' group has slammed civic leaders for imposing a further charge on hard pressed council taxpayers.

Sam Snook, chairman of the Burns Close Residents' Association, said: "I do not think it is fair to charge residents £18 a year. It seems that they are just trying to get more money out of council tax payers.

"I would have thought the money would have been better spent on clearing weedsfrom the kerbs. In some places they are growing like flowers and a lot of people are complaining.''

However Eastleigh's executive councillor for the environment Louise Bloom said: "We are now looking to increase the rate even further and have invested more than £500,000 in new collection equipment which will allow us to collect garden waste direct from everyone's home across the borough."

For more details about the garden waste collection service and how to get involved ring 023 8068 8396 or 023 8068 6632.