London boroughs offered 3.6 million for recycling

The seventh round of the capital's recycling funding comes largely from the additional 3.6 million assigned to London by DEFRA from the Landfill Tax Credit Legacy Fund (see letsrecycle.com story).

Unlike the other rounds of funding, the judging panel will be considering the cases of existing projects that did not get the full amount and proposals that were deferred in previous rounds as well as new applications. The deadline for applications is September 15, 2003.

Guidance published by the London Recycling Fund for round seven of the applications said: “No set proportion of the funds has been set aside for new projects. However, we are expecting about 1 million to be available to fund new projects. Applicants should also be realistic about the amount to fund a single project. It is unlikely that any single project will be allocated more than 250,000 – the figure may be smaller depending on the quality of applications.”

Reclaimed
The criteria for this round of funding are also different to the previous rounds as the applicants must prove the money will be spent before March 15, 2004, or it will be reclaimed by the Treasury.

Speaking at a London Waste Action conference yesterday, project director Simon Read said: “Because you've only got five months to spend this cash once you get it, we will be checking that you can deliver your plan. One of my own jobs is to make sure none of the money goes back to the Treasury.”

Mr Read added that projects that have already received funding from previous rounds will be audited and any unspent money will be added to the 3.6 million. Additional cash from under-spends and savings made by the London borough councils from projects and other monies should take the fund up to 4 million.

After the deadline in mid-September, there will be a programme board meeting in the week commencing October 6 and London Waste Action will then have a board meeting in the week commencing October 13.

The guidance said: “Please note that we plan to allocate all available funds through Round 7. No further opportunities are likely to be available for applying for funding in 2003/04. Round 7 is your last chance to apply!”

For more information go to the London Recycling Fund website.