“No interest” from councils in incentive scheme pilots

Responding to a parliamentary question raised by Conservative MP Eric Pickles on Monday (July 24) about the schemes – which would see five councils rewarding councils for recycling and charging those who do not – minister for waste Joan Ruddock said: “No authorities have yet come forward to formally express an interest in participating in a pilot waste incentive scheme.”

“I wrote to local authorities on June 20 inviting them to come forward, with a deadline for submitting final proposals to run pilots of eight weeks after Royal Assent to the Climate Change Bill. I noted in that letter that we will release the names of any authorities which come forward with formal expressions of interest at that time,” she added.

The date that the Climate Change Bill will receive Royal Assent is yet to be determined, after the Bill was subjected to a Public Bill Committee in the House of Commons at the start of July (see letsrecycle.com story) and Parliament began its summer recess this week – meaning that that there is still time for councils to respond.

However, lack of interest so far might be a sign that Defra could find it hard to attract many local authority participants, after strongly urging councils to sign up more than a month ago (see letsrecycle.com story).

Scheme

The intention had been to introduce the schemes in five authorities but the lack of a quick response could be attributed to councils not wanting to prove unpopular with their residents by adopting the power to introduce fixed penalty notices for waste offences.

In February, the Parliament's communities and local government select committee attacked the planned pilots as a ‘messy compromise' and urged the government to drop its proposed five pilot authorities, a suggestion that was welcomed by the Local Government Association (see letsrecycle.com story).

Joan Ruddock highlighted that councils wishing to adopt the pilot scheme would be at liberty to run it for a length that suited them but “will need to run for long enough to provide high quality, robust evidence for the report back to Parliament.”

Critics

During the questions on Monday (July 21), Mr Pickles attempted to scrutinise the planned incentive schemes, in line with criticism he has voiced in the past (see letsrecycle.com story).

The schemes came in for further criticism just a fortnight ago (July 14). Then, LARAC – the Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee – described Defra guidelines on ‘Good Recycling' under the pilot scheme proposal as “potentially confusing” (see letsrecycle.com story).

The concept of the schemes was unveiled last October following publication of the Waste Strategy for England 2007, with Defra saying it intended them to promote recycling and not be introduced as a stealth tax on those who don't (see letsrecycle.com story).

Unclear

If no council comes forward it will be unclear how the incentive schemes will progress, as the government is keen to test the initiative through pilots rather than impose a blanket policy.

Already, it is not expected that the pilot schemes will be introduced until after April 2009, with the prospect of a general election before 2010 possibly stalling them further.

Joan Ruddock said: “We would not anticipate incentive schemes beginning before April 2009. It will be for local authorities wishing to run pilots to come forward with proposals for when schemes could begin in their areas.”