Government slams Norfolks backdoor bin charge

The government has criticised Norfolks plans to charge residents 2 at nine of its 20 household waste and recycling centres (HWRCs) as a backdoor bin charge and questioned the legality of the proposals.

Norfolk county council is looking to make up a 189 million shortfall in its budget over the next three years and forecasts that introducing a 2 charge at some of its HWRCs from 2016/17 will save 280,000 and help to keep all 20 of its recycling centres open.

But, according to a letter sent to the county council on Friday (February 28) signed by both recycling minister Dan Rogerson as well as communities minister Brandon Lewis charging for using recycling centres will increase the risk of fly-tipping, harming the local environment and diverting taxpayers money to clean up the mess.

The letter states: It is our belief that this backdoor bin charge will both inconvenience local council tax paying residents and create perverse incentives.

The ministers argue in the letter that introducing charges will encourage householders to put recyclable items in their residual waste bin for landfill and goes against Defra and DCLGs interest in making it easy for people to recycle.

According to the letter, the Environmental Protection Act (Section 51) also states that local authorities have a duty to provide sites for the deposit of household waste and that where such sites are provided in fulfilment of this duty, waste must be accepted free of charge.

It adds: We are interested to hear how Norfolk county council squares its charging proposals with the requirements of the Act.

We firmly believe that Norfolk county councils proposals to charge for HWRCs provision runs against the interests of the householders and governments environmental concerns and suggest it seriously revisits its thinking.

Consultation

The council last month agreed to introduce charges and reduce opening hours at some of its HWRCs as part its final budget for the next three years following a consultation in December 2013 (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, a spokeswoman for the county council said it faced very significant cuts and that the government had already had a chance to put forward its views during the consultation last year.

The spokeswoman said: Eleven of Norfolks main recycling centres will still be free to use. But charging a small fee at nine of our smaller sites from 2016 is one way of keeping all 20 open in the face of very significant cuts in government funding that our county is having to deal with.

Council documents state that the budget consultation received a significant number of responses on the HWRC charge proposals, which highlighted concerns about a resulting increase in fly tipping.

But the documents add: Whilst recognising these concerns the council feels that the proposals affect some of the least used recycling centres, with only five sites affected by both proposals. It also feels that, as the service will still be available, the service should go ahead with the proposals as planned.

Somerset

It is not the first time a council has introduced a public charge for using HWRCs. In 2011, the Somerset Waste Partnership was criticised by communities secretary Eric Pickles for charging residents 2 per visit at four HWRCs in the county in order make budget savings (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, in December 2013, Northamptonshire county council also considered introducing a public charge for use of its HWRCs as part of plans to save 128 million across its budget (see letsrecycle.com story). However, the council decided to scrap this idea last month in favour of saving money in other areas.