NORTH Ayrshire Council is considering introducing a charge to collect your garden waste.

It is the latest in a line of cost cutting measures being considered by the council in secretive budget discussions.

Executives are preparing budget plans for 2023/24 - with required savings anticipated to be around £14.5 million.

Documents show that by introducing a charge for garden wast collection, the council could bring in around £554,000 - though specific details of how this might be done are not clear.

If implemented, with a decision due to be made in March of 2023, this may be done in a simlar way to that which East Ayrshire Council have already introduced.

In East Ayrshire, residents must apply for a permit to have their garden waste bin emptied.

This comes at a cost of £30 per bin per year, which allows for four-weekly collections of their brown bin between March and December.

Those who buy permits are issued with a sticker for their garden waste bins, and these are collected by refuse workers as usual.

Residents do, however, still have the option to dispose of their garden waste for free at local recycling centres - and the same principle would likely apply in North Ayrshire if the council introduces a permit system.

However, as with previous potential cuts, the council says no firm decisions have yet been made - and nothing will be set in stone until the authority's annual budget meeting at the beginning of March.

A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “It’s important to stress that no decisions have yet been taken on budget savings for next year.

“We will shortly be undertaking consultation across North Ayrshire which will inform us of our residents’ priorities ahead of the budget being set.

“However, across Scotland and the United Kingdom, everyone is feeling pressure from the cost-of-living crisis and the council is not immune from that.

“Over the past 12 years, we have had to find savings of more than £129 million while ensuring we protected frontline services and jobs.

“And there’s no doubt that difficult financial choices continue to lie ahead for all of us. For the financial year 2023/24, we currently anticipate a funding gap of £14.5m, while our financial outlook also indicates the council has an anticipated budget gap of £35m over the next three years.

“Rising inflation and energy costs have created additional pressures on our already challenging financial position.

“Unfortunately, that means that a wide range of difficult options are likely to be considered in order for us to deliver a balanced budget.

“However, no decisions will be taken on how to achieve these savings until the full council meets to consider the 2023/24 budget on March 1, 2023.”