THE spectre of households being charged according to how much rubbish they throw away is looming, following claims that the first official trials of "chip and bin" technology are now taking place in Northern Ireland.

Last year, the revelation that Bournemouth's new wheelie bins were fitted with microchips caused a storm of controversy.

Now it has emerged that three councils in Northern Ireland have been given £140,000 by the government to install the chips, which can be used to find out the weight of each household's rubbish.

Conservative local government spokesman Eric Pickles claimed: "Northern Ireland is being used by Labour as a pilot for microchips to be installed in every bin in Britain. Such taxes will damage the local environment by causing a surge in fly-tipping and backyard burning."

Earlier this year, the Local Government Association, representing councils in England, called for rubbish taxes to be used to encourage families to throw out less waste.

Bournemouth West MP Sir John Butterfill said: "I think it's important that we all become much better at sorting out our waste into paper, glass and recyclable materials, and I think that's happening all over the country. They're looking at ways of solving the problem, but it's a very fraught area and we've got to have a lot of consultation."

Sir John added that his own view was that pay-as-you-throw would lead to an increase in rubbish being fly-tipped in towns and in the countryside. "People would suffer very heavy fines if caught, but we all know it happens."

He said he hoped local authorities would be allowed to make their own decisions over charging. No taxes on rubbish can be introduced in England until legislation has been passed to enable councils to collect the money.