An announcement from DCLG officials at the communities and local government select committee has at last started to cast light on what Eric Pickles’ controversial £250m fund to support local authorities who retain or reinstate weekly waste collections may actually cover.
“It’s about three things”, said David Prout, director general of localism. “It’s about reinstating or retaining a weekly black bag collection – in other words, so you as a household get your rubbish collected every week – and it’s about improving environmental performance, and it’s about improving value for money,”
It is hard to argue against saving money or improving performance – indeed, my colleagues and I at Eunomia work hard to help councils do just that. But championing weekly refuse collection pushes in the opposite direction – it costs more, and it leads to worse environmental performance. Constraining the space available to householders to throw things away is an extremely effective way to encourage more thought regarding how to dispose of waste.
Perhaps he’s pitching for the Daily Mail audience, but judging by the tone of the comments on this article, there is by no means unanimous support for his approach from that constituency. Indeed, one of the few groups that seems to match Pickles’ obsession is the Taxpayers Alliance, who seem to view utopia as a place with one bin per household collected as frequently as possible, and at no extra cost – as it’s a service “we’ve already paid for” through our council tax.
No wonder there’s little enthusiasm from Councils for taking up the fund. In fact, it makes you wonder whether Pickles even expects to get any takers for his £250m, or whether the whole thing is designed to shore up support without spending any money.
Interesting – it appears that this moment of clarity from DCLG has passed again, with Let’s Recycle now reporting that the department is refusing to state what the criteria for the Fund will be. As you were, I guess.
http://www.letsrecycle.com/news/latest-news/councils/bids-to-be-invited-in-new-year-for-ps250m-weekly-fund
It’s not just ironic, it’s bizarre that the TPA are supporting increased taxpayer costs in the face of overwhelming public apathy about the ‘benefits’
It was interesting to read the comments at the end of the Daily Mail article – many of them were in favour of the fortnightly collection system. Maybe they have been heavily trolled by waste professionals! I don’t know anyone in the waste industry who thinks Pickles’ idea is a good one. It wasn’t surprising that he did it though – he has had a bee in his bonnet about this for years. It is ironic that the Taxpayers Association is in the same camp as Pickles – surely moving back to weekly collection is a perfect example of wasting taxpayers money!
It looks as though this story is now also in MRW,
http://www.mrw.co.uk/news/strict-limits-on-pickles-bin-fund/8623521.article. They’re reporting the another interesting finding of the LGA survey that found the low level of interest amoungst councils in returning to weekly refuse collections. Apparently, around half would be interested in using the fund to support weekly food waste collections.