A Whittlesey man has hit out at Fenland District Council for refusing to accept a cheque he tried to use to pay for its garden waste service.

Malcolm Whitwell sent a cheque to the council this week to take advantage of its ‘early bird discount,’ which offers customers a saving of 10 per cent – or £4 – when signing up for its £40-a-year brown bin service – before January 9.

The cheque was then returned to Mr Whitwell, alongside a letter saying he would have to pay online.

He said: “I don’t have a computer so now I feel as if I’m being penalised for not having one.

“I spoke to the council and they said they’d get back to me, but the deadline is on Monday and I’m running out of time to get the discount.

“I know I’m not the only one – a lot of other people have had the same problem.

“It’s really annoying. I’m not happy about having to pay for a brown bin in the first place but now it looks like I’m going to miss out.”

Fenland District Council, however, says that the discount was online-only, and only full payments of £40 made after January 9 can be paid via cheque.

A spokesman said: “The early bird discount is only available online. All the information we have supplied on this has been clear and that was the way the discount was drawn up from the start.”

The council brought in the annual charge in October 2016 in an attempt to save £500,000 a year.