The leader of Croydon Council has accused a government minister of “bare-faced cheek” after he was urged to explain spending £58,000 on “politically biased” letters.

A row broke out this week after local government minister Marcus Jones wrote to Cllr Tony Newman suggesting the council had breached the local authorities’ code of practice by failing to ensure “objectivity” in letters sent to households last year about new garden waste collection charges.

The Labour authority spent £58,000 sending more than 139,000 letters last year informing them of the fees.

The letters blamed cuts in government funding for the introduction of the charges, which came into effect last week.

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Chris Philp, Conservative MP for Croydon South, subsequently complained to Mr Jones.

He said: “They are using taxpayers’ money to fund what is essentially party political propaganda, which is completely inappropriate. I think the community also sees it as politically biased.”

On April 21, Mr Jones wrote to Cllr Newman suggesting the council “might not be complying” with the code of practice.

He added: “I would be grateful if you would please confirm that your council is committed to both future compliance and to taking any remedial measures necessary to address past or current non-compliance.

“Moreover, the statement, about your council’s budget, appears to be factually inaccurate, confusing budget reductions with the necessary reductions that the government made to the level of Revenue Support Grant your council receives.”

RELATED: More than 3,500 sign petition against Croydon Council garden waste charges

But Cllr Newman said: “It’s bare-faced cheek of the minister writing to this council after we have faced 50 per cent funding cuts as a council over the last five years.

“We haven’t confused anything, it is very clear indeed how much this council’s budget has been reduced. We are very confident that we are correct in what we have said.

“When I last checked we didn’t live in a dictatorship. We are elected local politicians who have taken the decision to try and keep delivering the service despite the cuts from the minister’s own government and I can’t think of a more democratic exercise than that.”

Households will be charged about £60 a year for fortnightly pick-ups. More than 10,000 households have signed up for the collection, which the council says has saved it £1.6 million.

More than 6,000 people signed a petition against the charges.