Dudley people are missing out on vital information about new charges according to councillors on a watchdog committee.

Communications about the introduction of green waste collection fees are so bad one panel member even claimed the authority is approaching the point of discriminating against visually impaired people.

The damning comments were made at a meeting of Dudley Council’s Highways and Environmental Services Select Committee on March 21. Cllr Karl Denning said:

“Communication is dire, visually impaired people can’t read a letter or look at Facebook. It’s disgusting, almost to the point of being discriminatory. Communication is key to everything, as a council we don’t communicate properly.”

The charge of £36 for 25 green waste collections each year was introduced in the council’s budget which was approved on March 4.

Residents will have to pay the charge from April 1 and 30,000 people have already signed up but officers came under fire for not getting the message out that charges were being introduced. Cllr Keiran Casey said: “From a communications perspective this has been handled so badly, people don’t know it’s happening.”

The council’s director of environment, Nick McGurk, added: “We need to look at communication methods, letter drops or putting things on bins is costly.

“It’s disappointing, I believe the council used its normal methods of communication. We don’t want people not to subscribe because they don’t know about this.”