The party has previously touted the policy at a local level, and has now been taken forward as a national policy alongside limiting the number of ‘highly-paid’ council employees and cutting local authority advertising budgets.
UKIP will also seek to encourage local authorities to build partnerships to reduce costs, the Party has said.
And, the Party has stated that it would seek to abolish ‘unecessary quangos’ such as the Waste & Resources Action Programme, which it claims costs the taxpayer £15.5 million per year.
In the manifesto, the Party states: “Local authorities have significant power in matters concerning planning and housing, education, local refuse and recycling facilities, parks and leisure facilities, transport, libraries and keeping local people safe.
“Too often, elected councillors put party politics ahead of taxpayers when making decisions on these important matters. UKIP believes councils should exist to serve their communities first and we will put power back where it belongs: in the hands of local people.”
On waste collections, UKIP adds that it would: “Reinstate weekly bin collections where local communities have lost them and want them reinstated.”
Weekly waste collections have previously been a crusade of the Conservative Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, who in 2011, offered councils a share of a £250 million fund to increase the frequency of residual waste collections to a weekly service.
Weekly collections
However, only one local authority opted to use the fund to reinstate weekly collections of residual waste – Stoke-on-Trent council – and these plans were dropped when the council assessed the financial cost of changing the service.
UKIP has yet to outline whether it would introduce legislation to force councils to reinstate weekly collections – and it has not calculated the estimated cost of the policy among the independent financial analysis of its policies accompanying the manifesto.
The ‘Believe in Britain’ manifesto document launched by Party leader Nigel Farage in Thurrock also outlines UKIP’s plans to withdraw the UK from the European Union, while the Party has pledged to repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act – a piece of legislation it has described as ‘folly’.
The manifesto states: “…the 2008 Climate Change Act, an Act rooted in EU folly, drives up costs, undermines competitiveness and hits jobs and growth. Dubbed ‘the most expensive piece of legislation in British history,’ the government’s own figures put the cost of the Act at £18 billion a year over 40 years, or £720 billion between 2010 and 2050.”
It’s worth noting that the proponents of a weekly general waste collection service have yet to justify that stance. Reducing the number of collections of general waste isn’t merely a cost-cutting measure (necessary or otherwise): it’s a tool to increase recycling. An example of a local authority which is highly aware of the potential of this measure is Falkirk Council, which is phasing in a three-weekly general waste collection (decreased from fortnightly). While statistical evidence hasn’t shown the marked increase in recycling rates which was hoped for by the Council, anecdotal evidence has shown that the “sustainable collection” has provided an extra incentive for householders to recycle as much as possible. Neither Mr Pickles or UKIP has been able to furnish any evidence – statistical or anecdotal – in favour of reinstating weekly general waste collections. In my view, this is a retrograde step.