RESIDENTS in Teesdale are to be given a financial incentive to encourage them to recycle more of their waste.

Teesdale District Council has vowed to pay householders in the dale £10 if they put out their recycling boxes 80 per cent of the time.

The reward is part of a scheme by the council to increase recycling in the dale, and householders can either take the £10 or donate it to a charity of their choice.

The scheme will be introduced next week and residents will be given wheeled bins and recycling boxes to leave plastics, cans and paper.

The council will fund the reward scheme through the sale of recyclable materials, and the authority aims to increase recycling by almost 20 per cent over the next few years.

The council's head of environmental health, Howard Stainthorpe, said : "I've never known this kind of public interest in such a scheme before.

"There has been the odd complaint or concern, but on the whole the public has been really positive and that is really encouraging and it is a good sign that we can meet our targets if householders are behind us."