Just weeks after the government's long-term ambitions for Northern Ireland to meet Europe's Landfill Directive were labelled as “conflicting and confusing” by local authorities, a new row has opened up concerning funds available for 2006/07.
” There is no point in building a facility where there is no need for one – so councils cannot use the 7 million that has been given. “
– Kern McCambley, NILGA
A move by government to earmark all waste management funding for new building projects or recycling equipment rather than for maintaining existing services could see a 9% increase in local taxes.
Northern Irish councils learned on Thursday their usual funding allocation of 10 million for waste management have actually been cut to 7 million.
A spokesman for the Department of Environment told letsrecycle.com today the cuts had been the result of requirements for the Department to improve the efficiency of its spending after the Gershon Review.
Capital
Further headaches for local authorities have come because the Department is forcing them to spend 100% of this 2006/07 funding on new capital projects, rather than for costs involved in maintaining established infrastructure and services.
This goes for all Northern Irish councils, regardless of whether they have already financed capital projects like sorting facilities or recycling points.
Kern McCambley, waste policy officer at the Northern Ireland Local Government Association, said this year (2005/06) had already seen 60% of funding earmarked for capital projects, while expectations for 2006/07 had been for a 70% level rather than the full amount.
Ms McCambley said: “In the early days the money was spent bringing in new recycling centres or blue bin schemes, but now these are in place they need to be maintained. There is no point in building a facility where there is no need for one – so councils cannot use the 7 million that has been given, only around 2.1 million can actually be utilised.”
Rates
As a result of the government's new spending plans for the waste funding, Ms McCambley claimed local authorities would have to put up rates paid by householders by as much as 9%.
In terms of the capital investment that is needed in Northern Ireland, Ms McCambley said it was major plants with major investment required, rather than the minor facilities the DoE's 7 million fund was encouraging.
She said: “Other than the local recycling centres, we have not seen any major infrastructure investment in Northern Ireland. We are increasing recycling, but there needs to be larger investment dealing with the waste that goes to landfill, and that is going to take serious investment.”
The Northern Irish Local Government Association has said councils' waste management services are already under-funded compared to the rest of the UK – stating that Scotland received 25 per head of the population for waste expenditure, while Northern Ireland is working with 15.
Government
A spokesman from the Department of Environment said councils had known about the cut in waste funding in October. He said the ring-fencing of spending for capital projects was needed to “continue the improvement of waste management services and facilities”.
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He said: “All government departments have had to make efficiency savings and have faced significant challenges in doing so. DOE officials announced in October last year that there would be a reduction in the level of funding for the waste management grant for 2006/07 from 10m to 7m and that the scheme would close at the end of March 2007.
“We have pressed to restore 2m to the waste management fund but the future use of funds will be confined to capital projects to continue the improvement of waste management services and facilities,” the DoE spokesman added.
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