The Environment Minister has repeatedly warned local authorities that they have no excuse not to hit targets and has now outlined what will happen if councils fail to make progress.
Mr Meacher explained that there is sufficient money to enable targets to be reached and said: “There is no excuse for local authorities not to meet their recycling targets as we have providing sufficient funding.”
But local authorities have said that the money announced by the government is not enough and a County Surveyors' Society report which has been submitted to the Performance Innovation Unit (PIU) research team suggested that around 6 billion is needed to enable local authorities to meet targets.
Responding to this, Mr Meacher said: “Local authorities generally believe that they need more money. We need to see the evidence on which this is based. There is no excuse in terms of money these targets cannot be met.”
The Minister explained that the government is able to remove council powers if their waste and recycling services are not up to standard. He said: “We will be monitoring performance and if there are problems we will talk to the councils. We suggest that they talk to neighbouring authorities and learn from best practice or go to WRAP. They will be able to use WRAP's expertise and facilities. If all of this leads to nothing happening we will consider drastic action as we have got the power to intervene.”
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