A WORCESTER charity which helps the needy has been told it will be reissued with free passes to dispose of rubbish after a 'charging' row.

Armchair, which passes on unwanted household furniture to members of the public, was left reeling before Christmas after free permits to use a landfill site near Pershore were stopped.

It meant volunteers with a van-load of unsuitable items were turned away and told to take the items elsewhere, leaving them to pay a £120 bill to have a private contractor dispose of it.

But Worcestershire County Council - which put its first decision down to health and safety concerns - says a new scheme will launch in March offering the same access.

Hill & Moor landfill site in Throckmorton is being reconfigured, partly due to the imminent opening of the council's £120 million incinerator at Hartlebury this spring.

Bosses at County Hall say charities wanting to access the landfill site will be able to get 12 vouchers per year to access it for free, calling the problems prior to Christmas "a blip".

Councillor Anthony Blagg, deputy leader and cabinet member for the environment, said: "To make sure people are who they say they are, they will need to be issued with a permit.

"After that, they'll get 12 vouchers a year which I'm told is more than enough for what they'll need."

Speaking during a full council meeting, he said having vans drive around large sections of the site is "not good for health and safety", resulting in the prior decision to suspend access while layout changes were made.

The new arrangement follows a plea by the Labour Party, which put together a motion for a full council meeting last week criticising the site's refusal to accept charity waste.

The motion said the extra costs they would face will "make charities less sustainable" and could "eventually put them out of business" unless the free offer was reinstated.

During the meeting Labour Councillor Paul Denham said the new offer "will achieve most of what I wanted to achieve" and agreed to withdraw the motion, on the basis of what had been promised.

After the meeting Paul Griffith, a trustee at the charity, said: "This is very good news - I'm absolutely delighted common sense has prevailed."

Charities which used to access the landfill site will be written to by the end of this month, inviting them to take up the vouchers offer.