THOUSANDS more Hampshire residents are being asked to pay for a third wheelie bin outside their homes.

Civic chiefs in Eastleigh want new 240-litre garden waste bins to replace the 120-litre sacks currently used for the collection of green material including leaves, small branches, weeds and hedge clippings.

Residents, who already have separate bins for household waste and recycling, will pay an extra £5 a year, with the service moving from a weekly to a fortnightly collection.

Council bosses believe they can rake in an extra £159,000 a year while boosting recycling rates by more than two per cent.

But the proposal, out for consultation until May, has already sparked concern over the number of bins outside homes.

It comes after bosses at Southampton City Council caused a storm by unveiling plans to charge residents up to £55 a year for a similar scheme.

Nearly 11,000 people use the sack system across the area covered by Eastleigh Borough Council, paying £30 a year for the service.

The new bin proposal would cost users £35 a year.

Peter Smith, from the town’s Aviary Residents’ Association, said the matter was due to be discussed at the group’s next meeting.

He said: “Personally, I think it is aimed at making it easier for people, but three bins outside your house is a fair number. The bottom line is that the cost is going up again.”

Penny Valander, from the Boyatt and Allbrook Residents’ Group, said: “The bag is much more flexible and you can take it wherever you need it.”

Consultation over the move comes just weeks after civic chiefs gave the green light to start replacing its 240-litre capacity household waste bins with new 180-litre versions.

Civic chiefs want to increase the amount of recyclable materials collected by nearly seven per cent in the next two years.

Councillors were told: “Studies show that, in the majority of cases, residents find the move to wheeled bins an improvement to the service as it means their garden waste is easier to move and store.

“In most cases, users of the garden waste service have sufficient space to store the additional waste bin.”

One Eastleigh resident, Helen Martin, said taking on another wheelie bin would mean leaving out five of the plastic containers.

The mum-of-four, from Nutbeem Road, already has four waste and recycling bins because of the size of her family. She also has two small food waste recycling bins and a glass recycling box to put out.

Helen, 39, said: “Just looking down the alleyway you would say there are enough bins already – you can only add to this number so many times.

“You get people on a Friday and Saturday night coming along the alleyway and pushing them around. We’ve already had somebody set fire to a bin in the past.”