Conservatives pledge a return to weekly waste collections

Speaking at the party's annual conference in Birmingham, shadow communities and local government secretary Eric Pickles attacked Gordon Brown's policy of “bin cuts, bin taxes and fines” which he said left councils taking the blame and said a Conservative Government would help fund councils to get collections re-instated.

He claimed that at the current rate that weekly collections were disappearing, there would be none left in the UK by 2013 – despite them being a “vital front-line service”.

As a result, he said that the “wheelie bin faced extinction under the Conservatives” – claiming that there was other, more “progressive” ways of increasing recycling – although he did not explain what these were.

He said: “We utterly reject Labour's army of bin bullies and bin taxes. That's why David Cameron has pledged that we will provide funding to help all councils to provide proper weekly collections on top of recycling.

“With a Conservative Government the weekly collection will be back, “he added.

Quangos

During his speech, Mr Pickles also attacked government plans for an unelected quango – or quasi autonomous non-governmental organisaion – which would make decisions over planning as well as a “a number of unelected and unaccountable” existing quangos for being as “pointless” and “useless” and said that “they are going to go.”

Although Mr Pickles did not name any in particular, this could include recycling organisations such as WRAP and NISP – which have already had to deal with sharp budget cuts.

Also speaking at the event, shadow environment secretary Peter Ainsworth re-iterated Conservative plans to reward people for recycling and not punish those who don't – as first discussed in July this year and has also been advocated by London Mayor, Boris Johnson.

He added: “There is an urgent need to forge a green economy…. We need a government which sends out clear and consistent signals.”