Speaking at a visit to Northamptonshire Children's Resource Centre in Colby yesterday, Mr Miliband said that allegations of huge fines for minor infringements in the national press sounded “a bit far fetched.”
The MP for South Shields said that councils were just trying to fulfil their environmental duty.
He said: “I think that councils should never be punished for trying to think about how they can fulfil their environmental responsibilities. I don't know if some of the allegations in the papers are true, about people being fined 1,000 for having a sheet of paper in the wrong bin – that all sounds a bit far fetched to me.”
Mr Miliband explained that the fines did illustrate the increasing profile of waste issues and how both councils and residents were thinking more about recycling.
He commented: “People are thinking about their options in how they live and work and that's a good thing.”
Strategy
During his visit to the Northamptonshire resource centre, which supplies children with surplus play materials from local companies, Mr Miliband explained that the new English waste strategy, due to be published by March, would put more emphasis on recycling.
He said: “We're thinking about the final way of doing it so it is probably best that I don't pre-empt that, but obviously the drive to think more about recycling and the whole waste hierarchy is really important and in a way that is what you are seeing here – that reuse is very important.”
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The Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs denied that the strategy – which was originally due to be published this Autumn – was delayed, but said that there was no point in a strategy if “all the different bits” were not “lined up.”
He said: “There hasn't been a delay. We're taking seriously the need to have a comprehensive strategy. It's important to get all the different bits lined up otherwise there is no point.”
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