Canterbury City Council has 1,000 red-lidded wheelie bins to give away to residents free of charge.

The bins, worth £44, are for paper and card and are only available for people who have no paper/card insert or who want to swap their insert for a red bin. People who already have a red bin are not eligible.

They are available on a first come, first served basis by calling Serco on 0800 031 9091 from 9am today (Thursday). Bins will be delivered within approximately a week of request.

The 180-litre bins are being paid for using deductions from contract payments made by the council to Serco as result of the contractor's failure to hit performance targets on the bin collection service.

Council spokesman Rob Davies said: "We expect these to go like hot cakes, so people will need to move fast. It's a bit like booking tickets to see Ed Sheeran, but with wheelie bins instead - once they're gone, they're gone."