Councils won't be forced to bring back weekly bin collections

Published by Ross Macmillan for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Communities, Local Government

Councils will not be forced to bring back weekly bin collections under a review of rubbish arrangements for England published today.

But ministers unveiled a range of measures on waste, including an end to "criminalising householders for trivial bin offences" through fines for mistakes in how they leave out their bins.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman said the Government wanted to help people do the right thing, by making sure communities got the collection services they want and were not penalised for "minor mistakes" on waste.

Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said the Government was ditching "bin taxes" and bin fines, and called on Whitehall and town halls to deliver more frequent and better rubbish and recycling collections.

Mr Pickles had previously also pledged to reverse the move to "unpopular and unhygienic" fortnightly rubbish collections by councils and bring back weekly bin rounds.

Today's waste review said that the Government would be working with councils to increase the frequency and quality of rubbish collections and to tackle measures which encouraged local authorities to cut waste services.

It also said the public had a "reasonable expectation that household waste collections services should be weekly, particularly for smelly waste".

But an expected pot of money to help councils switch to weekly collections of rubbish or food waste did not materialise in the review.

More than half of English councils pick up domestic waste fortnightly - though some have weekly food waste collections - saying it is cheaper, boosts recycling rates and is widely accepted by residents.

Local authorities have warned attempts to change back from fortnightly to weekly waste collections would dramatically increase costs - and would reverse efforts to increase recycling rates.

The costs of reverting to weekly bin collections across England are believed to be upwards of £100 million and potentially as much as £500 million.

Councils would be hit by the cost of increased bin rounds and re-negotiating waste contracts, as well as the possibility of higher landfill taxes and EU fines for missing waste targets if recycling rates fall and rubbish increases as a result of the changes.

While town halls will not be forced to switch back to weekly collections under the waste review, they will be prevented from taking householders to court and impose £1,000 fines for minor issues such as putting recycling in the wrong box.

Ministers said they would also be looking at reducing fixed penalty notices, which currently range between £75 and £110, and making sure they were only issued to neighbours from hell and the small minority who blight neighbourhoods.

The Government has already said it will scrap councils' ability to introduce "pay as you throw" schemes to penalise householders who produce more waste, labelling the measures brought in by Labour as "bin taxes".

Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM) conference today, Mrs Spelman said: "People want to do the right thing by reducing waste and recycling at home or out and about and we want to help them.

"This means making sure communities are getting the collection services they want and not penalising hard-working households who make minor mistakes by putting bins out on the wrong day or leaving a plastic tub in the wrong recycling box.

"For too long, we've lagged behind the rest of Europe, although we are catching up fast. Communities and businesses can help us become a first class zero-waste economy and unlock the real value in the goods people no longer want."

Mr Pickles said: "It's time to consign the failed policies of unfair bin taxes, bin fines and bin cuts to the dustbin of history.

"Families pay £120 a month in council tax. Both Whitehall and the town hall need to raise their game to deliver more frequent and better rubbish and recycling collections in return."

Other measures laid out in the review to reduce waste and boost recycling include incentives for householders who recycle, recycling-on-the-go schemes, better services for businesses and voluntary deals focusing on the hospitality industry, plastic bags, paper, junk mail, textiles and construction waste.

The Government will also consult on introducing landfill restrictions on wood waste and review the case for bringing in landfill bans on other materials including metals, textiles and biodegradable waste.

And an action plan on anaerobic digestion, a process which can turn food and farm waste into energy, aims to help industry grow in the next few years to deliver green jobs and green energy.

But officials said neither the action plan nor the waste review dictates to local authorities the best method of collecting organic waste - and it was up to councils to decide if they ran separate collection schemes for materials such as food scraps.

Shadow communities and local government secretary Caroline Flint accused the Government of being in chaos over its pledge to restore weekly bin collections, and said Mr Pickles had led people on with "overblown promises" he would never be able to deliver.

David Parsons, leader of Tory-run Leicestershire County Council, said: "Quite clearly, a significant number of common-sense councils believe fortnightly collections are working in their areas."

He said councils were making major strides in pushing recycling rates up past 50% in most areas, which helped save money for residents as it reduced the level of landfill tax.

He added: "Too often, this debate is portrayed in a simplistic fashion with those councils that do not adhere to the ideal weekly collection being portrayed as unyielding bureaucrats.

"Our residents ultimately care only that their wheelie bins are emptied in a regular and efficient fashion."

He said local authorities wanted the Government to trust them to deliver services, adding: "If a council wants a two-weekly collection and that is popular with residents, this is ideal localism in action."

Leicestershire County Council disposes of domestic waste, while the district and borough councils are responsible for collections, with five of the seven in Leicestershire using fortnightly collections.

Friends of the Earth's waste campaigner, Julian Kirby, said: "Cash-strapped councils will be relieved ministers have ditched ludicrous proposals to force them to provide weekly bin rounds - fortnightly collections are cheaper, encourage recycling and are popular with householders."

And he said: "The Government has spent a year reviewing its approach to rubbish - at vast public expense - and all it's managed to do is reduce its ambition, recycle old ideas and dump its commitment to a zero waste economy.

"We can't afford to keep burying and burning our waste - David Cameron should sort out this mess with a goal to halve the rubbish England throws away by the end of the decade."

Mrs Spelman admitted that, while the Tories had, in opposition, backed a return to weekly collections, the Government's financial situation had been worse than expected and prohibited funding to support councils bringing in more bin rounds.

And she said: "In the spirit of localism, central government is all the time looking to enable local councils to respond to local needs, and having a one-size-fits-all policy is not the right answer for that."

But she said Whitehall would support local councils where it could to provide more frequent collections, particularly on areas such as "smelly waste", which often provoked concerns.

There would be a small amount of money - around £10 million - to provide the infrastructure needed to develop anaerobic digestion, which could include funding for councils to pick up organic waste.

The Environment Secretary also said the Government was removing barriers which stopped councils returning to weekly bin rounds where they wanted to, for example Audit Commission guidance which marked local authorities down for not adopting fortnightly collections.

And she said: "Householders felt battered and berated by government in relation to waste collection. That's one of the reasons we're going to change the system on penalties so they are more proportionate."

Mrs Spelman will respond to an urgent question on the review from shadow environment minister Jamie Reed in the Commons at 3.30pm.

Under the new regime, there would be an end to disproportionate penalties, such as fines for the "little old lady putting a margarine tub in the receptacle meant for glass", Mrs Spelman said.

The power to impose criminal convictions and a £1,000 fine when a householder fails to put out their rubbish correctly will be removed, although the review acknowledged that it was used very rarely.

And it will only be possible to hand out fixed-penalty notices if the actions of residents are causing "harm to local amenity".

A survey by the Press Association earlier this year revealed that of 100 English councils which responded, only 17 had issued fixed-penalty notices in the past year, including two local authorities who later withdrew them, with most handing out 10 or fewer.

Many local authorities said they preferred to work with residents, for example using education or issuing warning or advice letters to householders.

Mrs Spelman was unable to say how much of a reduction in the number of fines the changes would deliver, but said councils that penalised people for minor mistakes lost the support of the public and the new set-up would "encourage an atmosphere where people want to recycle".

Other measures set out by the Government in the review include:

:: Working with business to encourage more recycled content in packaging, making packaging more recyclable and consulting on increased targets on packaging producers from 2013;

:: Support by Government waste agency Wrap for councils that work with businesses to find ways to help people recycle in public places, such as stations and shopping centres;

:: Working to remove barriers to improve energy from waste schemes;

:: Efforts to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to recycle;

:: Developing a waste prevention programme to try to reduce the amount of rubbish created in the first place.