BRAKESPEARE’S newly-formed Department of Clarifications set out on its first mission to find out how much cash Fenland District Council can expect from its new wheelie bin tax.

This is the �60 home owners will have to find to buy a set of bins if they move to a home without any.

Council leader Alan Melton believes it to be an “innovative” way of raising revenue and says 4,000 new homes would bring in �240,000, although his Cabinet colleague Pete Murphy pointed out that the bins bought by developers for new homes would be owned by the council.

If people move home and take their bin with them they can be prosecuted, the council warned, and bins cannot be bought privately as it “mixes ownership”.

A council report notes that “residents cannot have waste collected without a bin; if a bin is purchased by a resident and a wheel falls off, who is responsible for the repair?”

The report also accepts the new �60 charge will be unpopular and thieves will probably find them attractive... but that’s another story for another day.