John Phillips HUNDREDS of residents are set to use an opt-out clause in a bid to stop a �2.4million wheelie bin project reaching their front doors. Half the households in streets with narrow frontages, which have little space for the 140-litre bins, are poised to rejec

John Phillips

HUNDREDS of residents are set to use an opt-out clause in a bid to stop a �2.4million wheelie bin project reaching their front doors.

Half the households in streets with narrow frontages, which have little space for the 140-litre bins, are poised to reject the scheme rolled out in Barking and Dagenham this month to save millions of pounds of EU landfill taxes.

Conservative Cllr Terry Justice said up to 300 households were expected to use the council opt-out in streets south of High Road, Chadwell Heath, including Cecil and Eustace roads.

Others are set to continue using their bin liners rather than the "unsightly" bins they say threaten to ruin the borough's appearance and make it look like a "rubbish tip".

The council project, to be introduced to 50,000 low rise homes by the winter, could be further undermined after campaigner Tony Richards, 72, on Thursday submitted a Freedom of Information request to find out how many bins have been ordered and how much taxpayers' money may have been spent before the opt-out requests start coming in.

Mr Richards, of Wilmington Gardens, Barking, said: "I want to know whether, at the time they said there was freedom of choice, they had, in fact, ordered all these bins.

"It wouldn't make sense to have hundreds of thousands of pounds of ordered bins and then say whichever way you like."

Pensioner Norma Smith will use the opt-out confirmed by her MP for Barking, Margaret Hodge, in March.

She said: "I think it's great. I don't want wheelie bins. It's going to make Barking look like a rubbish tip."

The council expects to save around �620,000 in landfill tax in 2010/11, �730,000 in 2011/12, �860,000 in 2012/13, rising past the �1million mark from 2013/14.

A council spokesman said: "The only properties which will be exempt are those which have no room to store the bins, such as houses which open directly on to the street.

"People living in flats will continue to use their communal bins.

"Anyone who cannot manage their wheelie bins can contact the council to request an assisted collection.