RSPCA staff have branded the council “outrageous” after a row about overflowing rubbish.

Workers at the animal charity in  Patcham, Brighton, whose rubbish went uncollected for three weeks, were shocked to discover they were to be charged more than £10,000 a year for the service.

After taking the issue up with Brighton and Hove City Council, they have now had 11 of their 13 bins taken away.

They have been told to stop producing excessive amounts of rubbish or else fork out thousands to clean the rubbish themselves.

A council spokesman said: “If the charity, which nationally has an income of more than £100 million continues to produce the amount of waste it has been, it will need to be classed as business trade waste with the charity paying to have it collected by the council or another operator, costing around £10,000 a year.”

Anne Bond, chairwoman of RSPCA Brighton said: “To spring this enormous charge on us, with no notice and no correspondence is totally unacceptable and a complete disgrace.

“We are a self-funding branch of the RSPCA, we receive no money for the RSPCA national society.

“Our income is nothing like £100 million – it’s more in the region of £500,000, which we use for the benefit of the animals in our care.”

The council has waived its original demand for £10,000 a year and will continue to collect the rubbish at no cost.

But should the charity in Braypool Lane produce more than the two bins it has been allocated,  the council will once again demand

it pays the £10,000 collection fee.

Ms Bond said: “As an animal shelter with around 300 animals at any one time we can’t help but generate a large amount of waste.

“If the bins were emptied weekly as they’re supposed to be, there wouldn’t be a problem.

“The council does very well from us – we regularly accept unclaimed stray dogs from them, often requiring veterinary treatment, which we pay for.”

The charity said it acted as a “guard” for nearby Braypool sports field and car

park, protecting the fields from unauthorised travellers which they believe “saves the council huge amounts of money in clean up operations”.

The council spokesman said: “We have been treating the charity like we do our residents rather than a business and therefore not charging to remove their waste.

“To help the charity, which seems to produce a huge amount of waste, we have left two 1100 litre bins, which is more than they are legally entitled to.”