THOUSANDS of unwanted fridges are to be shipped abroad for disposal by a hard- up council desperate to reduce a mountain of unwanted appliances.

Fridges are being stockpiled across the region, because local authorities have been banned from dumping them in landfill sites.

In County Durham, the mountain has grown from a few hundred to more than 5,000 unwanted fridges since the beginning of the year.

The number of fridges is growing because facilities to remove the harmful chloroflurocarbons (CFCs) are not available in Britain.

Despite cash fears, the local authority has been forced to strike a deal with a disposal company in Germany.

The Government is believed to be putting together a deal worth up to £40m to clear the backlog, but until then council taxpayers are bearing expensive storage costs.

Durham has decided to act because it now has 5,000 fridges piled up in three waste transfer sites at Heighington, Thornley and Annfield Plain.

The county council is to ship the fridges to a German company called Rethmann by "back loading" them on to lorries, which would otherwise be returning empty to the continent.

Rethmann has three facilities in Selm, near Dortmund, where 98 per cent of each fridge can be recycled.

Durham anticipates 20,000 fridges being collected in the county and 5,000 from Darlington, which uses its facilities, every year.

The Government has already allocated £6m nationally to address the problem, but is thought to be putting together a new package worth up to £40m.

A county council spokes-man said: "Any extra money that is available will be very welcome.

"We will be putting a bid in, if a bidding process is required, because it's costing an awful lot of money.

"This is very environmentally friendly, but we need the finances there to carry it out."

Other authorities across the region are experiencing similar problems.

North Yorkshire County Council has about 4,000 units in storage, provided by private company Yorwaste.

It is taking in an extra 100 fridges a day and has budgeted for 26,000 units a year.

Redcar and Cleveland has 897 units, compared with 338 at this time last year. If the trend continues it will cost £132,000 to collect and store them - £80,000 more than expected.

The council's executive committee is meeting on Tuesday to consider introducing a charge for fridge collection