Opposition leaders in Dudley have vowed to fight the Council's plans to end weekly bin collections and charge for the removal of green waste.

Last week, council chiefs unveiled the controversial proposals as part of a new cost-cutting scheme. Bosses said they hoped to save £2.3 million with the move, which would also see residents charged £30 a year for green waste collections.

But the Labour-run authority last night confirmed there will be a rethink on proposals which will be scrutinised by an all-party working group.

Chiefs said this group will 'leave no stone unturned' at looking at other ways for the authority to save cash - so the rubbish bin collections remain unchanged.

UKIP group leader Councillor Paul Brothwood hit out at the council, saying his party had opposed the 'ridiculous' plans from the outset. Given the Labour party lacks an overall majority on the authority, they would not be able to pass any projects without the backing of UKIP. The council's Conservative group also opposes the plan. Councillor Hilary Bills, cabinet member for environmental services, said:

“The proposals to change the way we collect people’s waste and recycling were not put forward lightly, this is one of a number of difficult decisions we are having to make.

“From the initial feedback I want to look at this issue specifically to see if there are any alternative ways of saving this money from the wider council budget.

"The best way of doing that is to have an open and transparent working group with members of all political parties to scrutinise the proposals."

Councillor David Sparks, cabinet member for finance, said: “Twenty-four out of 26 metropolitan councils have moved to fortnightly collections, and some have gone to a collection every three weeks, but we have to exhaust every option before taking this decision.

“We will leave no stone unturned in looking for alternative ways of saving this money to meet the cuts we are having to make because of the reductions in funding from government.”