Tories attack Labour and Liberal councils&#39 recycling record

In his speech to delegates at the Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth yesterday afternoon, Tim Yeo said that on local authority recycling performances, only the Liberal Democrats rivalled the Conservatives.

But, he said: “They claim to be keen on recycling, but which council has the worst record in Britain? Step forward Lib Dem Liverpool, which recycles just 2% of its waste.”

Tim Yeo said that the ten worst local councils at recycling “are all Labour or Lib Dem controlled”. And, he said Labour ministers were no better than Labour councils, reminding delegates that “when new rules came in for disposing of fridges, they&#39d; only got two sites ready to do the job”, leading to “our very own fridge mountain”.

Referring to the UK's new EU commissioner, Mr Yeo said “the only bit of rubbish Tony Blair's managed to recycle is Peter Mandelson's career”. The Prime Minister also came in for some flak for not trying to persuade the Americans to sign the Kyoto Treaty on climate change “though Tony Blair's still best pals with President Bush”.

Mr Yeo said that on climate change, Britain had “led the debate” under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government, but that now “even sceptical Americans” were investing more in environmental technology than the UK.

Leadership
Much of the new Conservative Party policy Mr Yeo outlined for the environment involved promoting local farming and food production, and “firmer leadership” on reaching Britain's Kyoto climate change targets. But as for waste, he said that under a Tory government, “we'll make fly-tipping an arrestable offence”.

Mr Yeo's speech came a week after Secretary of State for the environment Margaret Beckett announced plans to trial local authority householder recycling “reward” schemes (see letsrecycle.com story) at the Labour Party Conference.

The Liberal Democrats' Conference last month saw their shadow chancellor suggesting that a Lib Dem government would give local authorities the power to charge householders for the amount of waste they produce (see letsrecycle.com story).