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DEFRA holds funding meetings as councils say show us the money for recycling

Calls of where is the money? from recycling officers have in part prompted the government to hold regional meetings to explain the current funding situation for recycling. This is against a background of some 190 million being allocated for recycling, but the money has yet to be seen and the lack of funding is threatening some recycling schemes.

Environment Minister Michael Meacher has said that there is no excuse for councils not to meet their set recycling targets with 140 million of government money allocated to boost recycling and 50 million New Opportunities Funding for community recycling. Recycling officers say that without additional money they will not be able to hit government recycling targets and some local authorities are struggling to finance even their existing kerbside collections.

An announcement on how the 140 million will be allocated is expected in February or March following the consultation document which was issued at the end of last year. The document was originally due out in the summer and the delay has meant that local authorities are still not sure of the criteria for the funding in 2002/2003. Many have expressed concern at the delays which will have a knock-on effect in reaching targets for 2003 and 2005.

Consultation was carried out last summer by how the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which controls the New Opportunities Fund, should allocate and manage the 50 million within its remit. Because the department has little experience of recycling and composting work it is likely that it will appoint groups and organisations experienced in the sector to take on a managerial role.

Tender

Catherine Haynes, of the New Opportunities Fund, said the Culture Department would be making an announcement on how the NOF money will be spent in the spring. It is expected that this could see tenders invited for the management of the fund.

The Community Recycling Network (CRN) put in extensive comments to the consultation and is confident that it, along with the rest of the community sector knows how to use and manage the money. Andy Moore, co-ordinator of CRN, said: “If the New Opportunities Fund puts out a tender document we will almost certainly bid for it.”

Several local authority recycling officers have voiced their concern at the funding delays. One local authority which reiterated the typical view was Bradford. Gerry McDermott, recycling officer for Bradford Metropolitan District Council, told letsrecycle.com of the desperate nature of the situation and said: “We have come to a full stop because of a lack of resources – we have one recycling vehicle which is working at full capacity and have no money to expand our schemes.”

Mr MrDermott explained that the lack of funding is threatening the future of the council's kerbside scheme. He said that to cut down on labour sorting, the council could only expand its single waste paper collection and not its dry recyclables collection. “We need money to move forward and to expand the recycling scheme to the 190,000 households in the borough. We are not going to strike government targets the way things are going and we need a cash injection as quickly as possible to get things moving.”

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