Thousands of people have already signed up for green bin collections after Barnet Council announced it would start charging £70 for the service.

Barnet’s environment chief says he is “confident” the council will raise the planned £800,000 per year from the paid-for garden waste service, which will start on April 6.

The Conservative administration came under fire from Labour councillors earlier this year when it revealed plans to begin charging for the collections.

Labour environment spokesman Cllr Alan Schneiderman (Woodhouse) branded the charge “a Tory garden tax” and warned it would lead to a rise in fly-tipping.

More than 80 per cent of the 6,500 people who responded to a consultation said they were opposed to the charge, with only 12.3 per cent in favour.

And nearly 60 per cent said they would stop using the service if a charge was introduced, while 37 per cent said they would continue to use it.

But at a meeting of the environment committee on Thursday (March 12), Geoff Mee, the council’s executive director of environment, said 13,199 people had already signed up and paid for the service.

He told the meeting: “I am confident that we will make the savings associated with the green waste collections.

“We have been collecting green waste again under the old scheme. That has gone without hitch, and I am confident we will be able to do that for chargeable waste from April.”

The £800,000 raised through the garden waste rounds will help the environment committee to save £4.2 million over the course of 2020-21.

Despite the environment chief’s optimism, a petition against the charge has so far attracted more than 9,000 signatures.