In its response to new figures published by Defra which show that councils are generally on target to meet this year's national targets for recycling and composting 17% of all household waste, Cllr David Sparks, chair of the LGA’s Environment Board, said: “Local authorities and their communities are to be congratulated for their commitment.”
However Cllr Sparks also warned: “Many authorities are currently facing a ‘double whammy’ of squeezed funding for environmental services and a host of new national and EU waste targets.
” Authorities are currently facing a ‘double whammy’ of squeezed funding and new targets“
– Cllr David Sparks, Local Government Association
“Local authorities have proven their commitment, the Government must now invest so that the country can improve its recycling performance on an ongoing basis.”
Defra's Best Value Performance Indicators for 2003/04 show that the overall local authority recycling and composting rates during rose by 3 percentage points – the highest rate of increase ever recorded in England.
But the results also showed that 167 councils – some 42% of all English local authorities – failed to reach statutory recycling targets for 2003/04, with 33 councils still recycling less than 10% of their waste which Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett stressed is: “No longer acceptable”.
”Confident that England will meet its 25% target but no longer acceptable to recycle less than 10%“
– Margaret Beckett, Environment Secretary
Despite the high failure rate among many councils, Mrs Beckett stressed she was still confident that England would meet its target of recycling and composting 25% of all household waste for 2005/06 and said that action would be taken to support and improve performance.
Cllr Sparks pointed out that the BVPI results show some major success stories with two councils recycling more that 40% of household waste and many already exceeding the 2005 target of 25%.
“There are some really fantastic success stories that prove that communities understand they must work with local authorities to put words into affirmative action. But there is still much to be done,” he said.
“We support the government’s plan to work with councils that need to improve, however it must also be acknowledged that huge funding shortfalls from central government for essential environmental services are stopping improved results becoming outstanding – across the board. Councils have huge further potential in this area, as already illustrated by many authorities.”
The Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee, LARAC believes that councils should be given the freedom to introduce local variable charges or reward schemes to boost local recycling levels though it is aware the subject would need to be handled sensitively so that the public would not see it as a new tax.
It has expressed disappointment that the Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, has ruled out the possibility of variable charges for the foreseeable future and in its formasl response has pointed out: “The achievements demonstrate that allowing local authorities the discretion to provide local solutions shows that one size does not always fit all.”
Lee Marshall, the newly elected chair of LARAC, said: “Well done to all our members for contributing towards the meeting of the 17% national recycling target. It shows what can be done when you combine adequate funding, local political will and technical know how.
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“Although it is good to give ourselves a pat on the back there is no let up and the next statutory targets for individual authorities are due next year. I think the Government have sent a clear signal that every authority must do its utmost to achieve their targets. It would be great if we could all meet those targets”.
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