The city had been hoping that the fund would support weekly nappy collections and a waste reduction incentive scheme.
In a letter to communities secretary Eric Pickles sent on February 7, Bristol councillor Gary Hopkins, who is responsible for waste services, said the criteria for the fund penalised the council for providing an effective and efficient refuse collection and recycling service.
Earlier this month Mr Pickles unveiled the criteria for the Weekly Collection Support Scheme (see letsrecycle.com story).
Inefficient
In his letter Cllr Hopkins (LibDem) said: Returning to weekly residual waste collections will not help to increase recycling rates and therefore not provide the environmental improvements you are seeking and would not give good value for money, as most do not need their residual waste collected each week and doing so would be inefficient and uneconomic.
Bristol operates a fortnightly residual waste collection and a weekly collection of dry recyclables and food waste, meaning it is not eligible for funding from the DCLG. To qualify for funding councils must be looking to introduce or retain a weekly collection of residual household waste or to add a weekly food waste service to an existing fortnightly collection.
Cllr Hopkins added: We feel the strict weekly residual waste collection criteria for the fund is unfair as it does not take into account a holistic and sustainable approach to waste management, which we have done here in Bristol.
Nappies
Cllr Hopkins revealed in the letter that the council wanted to apply for funding for a weekly kerbside nappy collection and a waste incentive scheme where residents would be rewarded for reducing the amount of residual waste they produce.
And Cllr Hopkins hit out at what appears to have been false hope generated by DCLG officials. He stated: It is our understanding that at an informal meeting with your department, the council was advised that these proposals would be welcomed and encouraged. Therefore, I am further disappointed that this advice was not carried through to the published prospectus.
Success
The letter highlighted Bristols achievements in increasing its recycling rate, which for 2010/11 stood at 38.5%. It also states that the amount of residual waste produced per household has dropped significantly from 925kg in 2004/05 to 541kg in 2010/11 a reduction of over 41%.
These figures, according to Cllr Hopkins, have improved further since the start of its new collection contract with May Gurney (see letsrecycle.com story) which began in November 2011. Since the start of the contract the council reports that in November and December 2011 it achieved a combined recycling rate of 51.2%.
Sheffield
Related links
Bristol is not the first city to voice its concerns over Eric Pickles 250 million Weekly Collection Support Scheme. Yesterday (February 13) Sheffield city council snubbed the fund claiming it would not be enough to save weekly waste collections in the city (see letsrecycle.com story) despite support from deputy prime minister and local MP Nick Clegg.
Last month the Labour-run council took the decision to switch to alternate-week collections in a bid to cut 12.5 million from its five year budget.
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