COUNCIL chiefs have spent £250,000 on new bins, at the same time as scrapping free black bags because they cannot afford the £47,000 bill.

The authority has shelled out the cash to buy thousands of blue food caddies - waste bins for leftover food - as part of a new drive to encourage recycling in the town.

It has started delivering them to residents, despite many already owning a previous version of the bin.

The move has outraged councillors who fought to keep the black bags - used for general rubbish - when Tory leaders announced they were to be scrapped as a cost-cutting measure from Monday. Martin Terry, spokesman for the Independent group, said: “I think this is absolutely ridiculous.

“How can we say we cannot afford black bags, but we can afford to spend five times as much on bins that most people already have?

“It is totally stupid and the sort of thing that gives the council a bad reputation.”

Chiefs announced the six-monthly delivery of black sacks would be scrapped as part of next year’s budget in January.

They argued residents could afford to buy their own bags, and continuing to deliver them for free would only discourage recycling.

The authority desperately wants to cut the amount of rubbish it sends to landfill to avoid the hefty fines associated with it.

Dipti Patel, the council’s head of public protection, also pointed out the funding for the new blue bins had come directly from the Government.

The food waste scheme previously operated on a voluntary basis, but chiefs successfully bid for £1.6million from the Department for Communities and Local and Government to encourage more people to take part.

Once the £250,000 costs of the new bins has been deducted, the remaining cash will be spent on compostable liners, which will be delivered to residents for the next five years.

Ms Patel said: “We appreciate that residents who have already been using the scheme may feel that it is unnecessary for them to have a new set of bins.

“However, the design of the new bins is an improvement on the original bins, with increased functionality, larger capacity and better design, and we felt that it was appropriate for residents who have been supporting the scheme to also have access to the superior new bins.

“Residents are able to keep their old bins as spares or for when they produce large amounts of food waste, such as at Christmas, and need to present more than one bin.”