Closure fears were expressed today by Martin Holt, a director of The Haven, which provides support and accommodation to young men to help them recover from drug and alcohol misuse.

Recent council budget changes mean it is to start charging charities for dumping unwanted items.

The Haven, based near Kilmacolm, has a large shop in West Stewart Street, Greenock, where the public donate furniture and electrical items for sale to raise much-needed funds.

Not all donations are in good enough condition to be sold, however, and many have to be dumped.

Charities are now to be charged £34.05 a tonne, plus VAT, when they use council dumps.

Mr Holt said: “We have been told nothing officially about this by the council.

“We only heard about it from one of the workers at the dumps, who said the charges start tomorrow.

“We have to dump quite a lot of stuff because people bring it to us out of the goodness of their hearts and we don’t like to turn them away.

“Now we’ll have to be much more choosy, and that could offend many people.

“We’ll still have to visit the dumps, however, and the extra cost could have a big impact on the shop, where we have two full-time staff and also take on 24 to 48 people a year for training from the jobcentres or other training agencies.

“Many of these trainees have gone on to full-time jobs, so it would be a great shame for this training opportunity to be lost.” A council spokesman today confirmed the dumping fee.

He said: “Inverclyde was one of the few local authorities who provided a free waste service to charities.

“As part of the overall budget setting process, it was agreed to charge charities half the current commercial waste charge from October last year.” The spokesman added: “We have been working with groups to advise on how they can reduce their waste, and to identify opportunities for them to re-use or even sell unwanted items.”