Third of councils expected to bid for 250m fund

A third of English local authoritiesare expected tohave bid into the CLG Weekly Waste Collections Fund, and most are planning to introduce weekly food waste collections, according to research published this week by MEL Research.

A survey of 100 waste collection authoritiesahead of the deadline lastFriday (March 16) for initial expressions of interestfound that 29% were definitelyplanning to applywith just under a half (47%) stating that they will not be applying. The remainder were undecided.

Of those that will definitely be applying, 54% said it would be to either roll out a weekly food waste collection service or to improve their existing food waste collection service. A significant number (10-15%)of interested authorities were also looking at introducing a weekly nappy collection service.

None of the authorities contacted said that they would be bidding to return residual waste collection to a weekly basis.

Only half of the definite bidders for the weekly funding were found to be currently operating fortnightly residual collections; the remaining half were seeking funds to sustain and protect existing weekly collections.

Organic waste

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles first announced the 250m Weekly Waste Collection Support Scheme in September 2011. The scheme is designed to help councils introduce or reinstate weekly waste collections. In February 2012 full details of the scheme were published, which revealed that weekly food waste collections will qualify (see letsrecycle.com story).

Commenting on the findings, MEL Researchs specialist municipal waste consultant Ian Stone said, This research suggests that authorities initial scepticism towards the fund has been replaced by practical attempts to bend the fund towards local priorities on food and other organic waste diversion.

If CLG respond positively the 250 million could provide a significant spring board towards reaching the demanding 50% recycling target.

Reversal

MEL Research chief executive Dr Bob Pocock added: One thing is certain the fund is not going to trigger a reversal of waste management practice back to conventional weekly residual collections. Our research shows that local waste managers dont believe that is the way to go and simply wont use the government fund for that purpose.

Reasons councils gave for not bidding to the fund ranged from not got the time to sticking to alternate weekly collection. Those intending to express interest in the fund are drafting applications that cover a range of schemes including enhancements to sustain weekly residual collections – such as swapping from sacks to bins and adding Eurobins for flat collections – to schemes for introducing or expanding weekly food collections, the single most popular objective.

Deadline

While thedeadline for submitting initial expressions of interest in the 250m DCLG fund was last Friday (March 16), outline bids are due by May 11 2012 and final bids by August 17 2012.

Final decisions about which bids receive funding will be announced in October 2012, with the first money available in the 2012/13 financial year.