The scheme was announced by communities and local government secretary of state Eric Pickles at the end of September to help councils either return to or retain weekly waste collections (see letsrecycle.com story).
And, while no formal consultation has taken place, stakeholders including trade associations and council representativeshave beenmeeting with officials at DCLG this month to discuss what exactly they think the fund should support. The department hopes to make an announcement on the way forward before Christmas.
The fund has caused controversy in the waste sector because a number of councils who have increased their recycling rates by moving to fortnightly collections of residual waste see support for weekly collections as a step backwards.
A critical question yet to be answered is whether the fund will support weekly collections of food waste. Many local authorities are keen for this to be the case as it would enablethem to increase recycling levels while offering a weekly collection of smelly waste. In October, recycling minister Lord Taylor indicated that food waste collections would probably be eligible (see letsrecycle.com story) but this has yet to be confirmed.
Councils are also keen to know what share of the pot theywill be able toaccessand what will happen after the five year period which the fund covers comes to an end.
APSE
According to the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) in a briefing note published last month, councils are worried that the fund could raise public expectations beyond the resources available. And it says thatif changes to bin collectionsare to be permanent, then funding will need be sustained in the longer term.
The Association added that many council bin collection services were tied into waste disposal contracts, which were co-dependent on agreed collection patterns which would be costly to change.
APSE chief executive Paul OBrien said: This fund will be inadequate for more councils and the practicalities of changing bin collections has not been fully considered. At the same time this intervention will cause confusion amongst residents and undermine locally agreed council policies on bin collections.
One local authority representative also told letsrecycle.com that the fund could cause division in two-tier areas. He said: Waste collection authorities may be keen to move back to weekly collections but waste disposal authorities will have to foot the cost of disposing of the extra waste.
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