A new charge to collect garden waste in Canterbury will be the highest in Kent, we can reveal.

Investigations show residents across the district will pay more for their green bins to be emptied than anywhere else in the county - despite the receptacles already being the UK's most expensive to buy.

But the city council is not shying away from a wave of criticism, admitting: "It's all about the money."

The cash-strapped authority revealed last week it wants to introduce a £45 annual fee to collect garden waste in June, with councillors set to wave through the proposal.

In a carefully-worded press release, it added it is the only "district council" in Kent currently not charging for the service - omitting any mention of the free weekly collections offered by Medway's unitary authority.

It also failed to highlight that the fee is the county's most expensive per collection - with green-fingered residents each set to pay £2.13 a fortnight for their bins to be emptied.

Since plans for the opt-in service were unveiled, the authority's press office has worked overtime to field off a deluge of negative comments on its Facebook page.

Criticism centres about the cost of the fortnightly service, as well as fears that charging will spark an increase in bonfires and fly-tipping.

But council spokesman Rob Davies says the backlash is "unsurprising", admitting the move has been inspired by the need to generate more cash.

"Inevitably when people are asked to start paying a new charge for something, it's not going to be popular," he said.

"People have said this is all about money, and they're right. We have to find £5 million of savings up to 2023/24, and a garden waste charge could bring in around a fifth of that.

"If we do not find that money from this, we'll need to find it from other services. That's not going to be popular either.

"There is no statutory duty on us to collect garden waste - in fact, we could just not do it at all.

"It's just bizarre that they do this after declaring a climate emergency"

"But by going down the charging route, we are adopting a user-pays approach, where residents opt in and subscribe to the service if they want to."

The council expects a 25% take-up in the first year, generating a net income of £379,380 over seven months.

It expects this to increase to 40% within three years, bringing in £1.05 million in 2023/24.

The introduction of a collection fee is likely to see district-wide recycling figures plummet by about 10%, the council admits.

The authority believes that in the first year three quarters of residents will snub the service, which will only run for 10 months of the year.

Bosses concede it will result in a downward turn in recycling rates just months after it declared a climate emergency.

Opponents fear it will also lead to a significant increase in fly-tipping and bonfires as people refuse to pay for collections.

Green Party member Alex Stevens is among the critics.

"It's just bizarre that they do this after declaring a climate emergency," he said.

"This is not going to help with recycling. I fear there'll be an increase in everything we don't want to see, such as fly-tipping.

"I can understand to some extent that the council has had massive cuts and needs to find ways to balance the books.

"But this is not the way to do it. It's not good for the environment."

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The authority eventually foresees an increased acceptance of the charge among residents and believes that by 2023, 40% of green bin owners will decide to cough up for the service.

It adds it will put a focus on home composting and expects recycling rates to recover.

"We are also looking at converting green bins into red bins for those who no longer want their garden waste collected," a spokesman said.

"This will provide more capacity for paper and card recycling and reduce contamination in the blue recycling bins, which are for glass, plastics and tins.

"Both of these will improve our recycling performance."

Many residents have taken to social media to hit out at Canterbury City Council's proposal.

Malcombe Pollett said: "Fly-tipping is already out of control in this country.

"I can only imagine this will lead to more waste being irresponsibly disposed of one way or another."

Nicky Thompson said: "Surely this will just make people throw it away in their black bins instead of encouraging composting."

Stuart Elliott added: "Yet more ways to squeeze money out of residents.

"This green waste proposal comes hot on the heels of plans to increase parking charges with the excuse it would reduce emissions.

"I wonder what will be next. Charges for walking on pavements?"

Joel Mitchell said: "This is a terrible idea. Just because others do things is no reason to downgrade a key environmental policy, which is a great help to those you are supposed to be serving."

Sarah Baker also hit out at the plan saying: "We are pushing more people into poverty and every little extra charge causes further grief.

"I already pay £320 a month council tax and whilst I am one of the fortunate ones who can afford to pay this, there are many vulnerable people who can't."

Residents earlier hit out after it was revealed binmen would not be collecting garden waste from any property in the Canterbury district for two-and-a-half months.

Earlier this month binmen in Tonbridge and Malling were involved bin collection 'fiasco' after a homeowner leaked CCTV footage.

Read more: All the latest news from Canterbury