An emphatic "no" has been given by Poole and Bournemouth councils on charging residents to throw away their rubbish.

Councils in England are to be given the power to introduce pilot schemes to charge households according to the amount of rubbish they bin.

But neither council intends to introduce pay-as-you-throw charges.

"We currently do not have any plans to implement this scheme and will not unless forced to do so by the government," said Emma Sadiwskyj-Frewer, environmental and recycling manager, Bournemouth Borough Council.

In September 2006 Bournemouth residents had a new kerbside scheme with a small refuse bin collected weekly and a larger recycling bin collected fortnightly.

Since then the borough's recycling rate has increased from 23 per cent to 33 per cent, hitting 40 per cent in February, and seen a reduction of 19.1 per cent in household refuse. In Poole the recycling rate is currently at 40 per cent and last year the council sent 62,000 tones to landfill.

Cllr Don Collier, cabinet portfolio holder for the environment, said: "Borough of Poole has no reason to introduce pay-as-you-throw bin taxes.

"Our recycling scheme currently achieves a 98 per cent participation rate among residents and Poole has more than doubled its recycling rate from 18 per cent to 40 per cent.

"We are also one of only a few authorities investing in a new plant for waste recycling, which will allow us to maintain and develop our successful blue bin scheme in the future.

"The idea of pay-as-you-throw is unpopular and I do not see it as a real solution for Poole."

MPs have warned the UK could face fines of up to £180m a year from the EC if it does not cut the amount of waste dumped in landfill.

Last week it was reported that Prime Minister Gordon Brown was unenthusiastic about the scheme and Conservatives have accused the government of a U-turn and said it will lead to more fly-tipping.