No reason to doubt interest in incentive pilots

A spokeswoman for the department told letsrecycle.com yesterday (July 28) that, while no formal proposals had yet been received for the schemes, it was confident there would be interest from local authorities, after they had strongly advocated introducing incentive schemes in the first place.

“We introduced these powers in response to calls from local government – whether authorities take up the option is up to them, but we have no reason to think they won't,” she said.

The comments come after waste and recycling minister Joan Ruddock said last week that Defra was yet to receive any formal proposals from councils looking to be one of the five local authorities that it hopes will operate pilot recycling incentive schemes (see letsrecycle.com story).

However, it is just five weeks since Mrs Ruddock first wrote to councils about the pilot schemes, and Defra is aiming to set a deadline for full applications to be received of eight weeks after the proposals receive Royal Assent as part of the Climate Change Bill.

With Parliament now in recess until October 6, the spokeswoman explained that there was still plenty of time for potential applicants to develop and submit their applications.

“We've only just put out a request for formal proposals from authorities, and they will clearly have quite a bit of work to do before they are in a position to submit their final applications,” she said.

“The deadline we set is eight weeks after Royal Assent to the Climate Change Bill – meaning that they are likely to have at least four or five months left in which to do this,” she added.

Defra originally unveiled its plans to introduce schemes that penalise residents who don't recycle and reward those who do last October (see letsrecycle.com story).

The pilot scheme plans have proved contentious; with the Local Government Association calling for the power to incentivise recycling to be granted to all councils (see letsrecycle.com story), while Conservative MP Eric Pickles has been a long-term critic of introducing incentives (see letsrecycle.com story).

The government is aiming to have the first incentive schemes up-and-running next year, with Mrs Ruddock indicating that April 2009 was the earliest likely date that would happen.