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<p> </p><p><em>Labour's legacy</em></p><p>The last Labour Government had a policy
of actively pushing fortnightly bin collections and hitting hard-working families
with new bin charges.Their ‘Household Waste Prevention Policy Side Research Programme'
advocated “collection limitations in terms of rubbish bin size or the interval between
collections”, and sought to “nationalise this policy among local authorities”. Cutting
weekly rubbish collections was not a locally-led initiative, but an explicit Whitehall
mission pursued with the zeal of a convert.</p><p>Legislation in 2005 allowed the
introduction of bin fines for minor breaches of complex and confusing bin rules; further
legislation in 2008 watered down councils' legal duties to collect rubbish. Guidance
issued in 2005 advised town halls that councillors should be bullied to stop them
opposing the axing of collections or proposing to restore weekly collections. It also
recommended that cutting collections should be done after local elections – to avoid
the nuisance of democratic opposition. The Government funded the covert imposition
of “bin brother” microchips into families' bins. The 2009 Pre-Budget Report made clear
that a further wave of bin cuts were being planned. In short, the “Town Hall Talibin”
doubled council tax and halved bin collections.</p><p>We disagree. This Government
believes that households deserve a frequent and comprehensive rubbish and recycling
service in return for the £122 a month in council tax that a typical household pays
(Band D), especially given the typical refuse collection service only costs councils
£6 to £7 per month to provide.</p><p><em>What we've done</em></p><p>We have taken
a series of steps to help households:</p><p> </p><p>· Issued the first ever Whitehall
guidance on weekly bin collections, demolishing the myths that fortnightly bin collections
are needed to save money or increase recycling;</p><p> </p><p>· Stopped the Audit
Commission inspections which marked down councils who do not adopt fortnightly rubbish
collections, and rejected the Audit Commission guidance which advocated fortnightly
collections (<em>Waste Management: The Strategic Challenge</em> and <em>Waste Management
Quick Guide</em>).</p><p> </p><p>· Abolished the Local Area Agreements and National
Indicator 191 imposed by Whitehall which created perverse incentives to downgrade
waste collection services;</p><p> </p><p>· Scrapped the Whitehall requirement for
municipal Annual Efficiency Statements, which allowed a reduction in the frequency
of a household rubbish collection service to qualify as a “valid efficiency” and allowed
revenue from bin fines to classed as a “cashable efficiency gain”;</p><p> </p><p>·
Scrapped the imposition of eco-towns which would have had fortnightly bin collections
and/or bin taxes as part of the “eco-standards”;</p><p> </p><p>· Safeguarded weekly
collections for 6 million households through the Weekly Collection Support Scheme
as well as championing innovation and best practice;</p><p> </p><p>· Supported over
40 innovative reward schemes to back recycling through the Weekly Collection Support
Scheme (as pledged in the Coalition Agreement);</p><p> </p><p>· Through the Localism
Act, revoked the 2008 legislation that allowed for the imposition of new bin taxes;</p><p>
</p><p>· Issued guidance to stop the imposition of illegal ‘backdoor bin charging'
on households bins;</p><p> </p><p>· Stopped funding the ‘Waste Improvement Network'
which told councils to adopt fortnightly collections as best practice;</p><p> </p><p>·
Challenged the incorrect interpretation by some bodies that European Union directives
require fortnightly collections, and resisted the imposition of bin taxes by the European
Union;</p><p> </p><p>· Removing powers of entry and snooping powers from “Binquisition”
inspectors and scrapped guidance telling councils to rifle through families' bins;</p><p>
</p><p>· Changing building regulations to tackle ‘bin blight'; and</p><p> </p><p>·
Changing the law through the Deregulation Bill to scrap unfair bin fines.</p><p>In
short, this has been a fundamentally different approach from the Labour Government:
we are working with families to help them go green, but believe in proper, regular
and comprehensive collections for taxpaying households.</p><p>The configuration of
services is complex. The table below, based on available estimates from WRAP, provide
the most detailed information held on the breakdown of refuse and recycling collections
of ‘smelly' rubbish across councils in England.</p><p><em>Weekly collections of smelly
rubbish</em></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><em>Councils</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly
Residual + Separate Weekly Food Waste</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly Residual + Weekly
mixed food and garden waste</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly Residual + fortnightly
mixed food and garden waste</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly Residual and no separate
food waste collection</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly Food Waste + Fortnightly Residual</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly
mixed food and garden waste + Fortnightly Residual </em></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jun-11</p></td><td><p>33</p></td><td><p>11</p></td><td><p>19</p></td><td><p>189</p></td><td><p>45</p></td><td><p>7</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nov-11</p></td><td><p>31</p></td><td><p>9</p></td><td><p>20</p></td><td><p>190</p></td><td><p>52</p></td><td><p>10</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jan-12</p></td><td><p>33</p></td><td><p>8</p></td><td><p>20</p></td><td><p>189</p></td><td><p>54</p></td><td><p>11</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Feb-12</p></td><td><p>33</p></td><td><p>8</p></td><td><p>17</p></td><td><p>182</p></td><td><p>58</p></td><td><p>11</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-12</p></td><td><p>39</p></td><td><p>8</p></td><td><p>21</p></td><td><p>181</p></td><td><p>61</p></td><td><p>12</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sep-12</p></td><td><p>39</p></td><td><p>8</p></td><td><p>20</p></td><td><p>179</p></td><td><p>62</p></td><td><p>12</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p><em> </em></p><p> </p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><em>Households</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly
Residual + Separate Weekly Food Waste</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly Residual + Weekly
mixed food and garden waste</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly Residual + fortnightly
mixed food and garden waste</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly collection and no separate
food waste collection</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly Food Waste + Fortnightly Residual</em></p></td><td><p><em>Weekly
mixed food and garden waste + Fortnightly Residual </em></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jun-11</p></td><td><p>1,296,296</p></td><td><p>405,719</p></td><td><p>718,292</p></td><td><p>10,480,876</p></td><td><p>1,750,654</p></td><td><p>353,001</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nov-11</p></td><td><p>1,079,984</p></td><td><p>479,151</p></td><td><p>998,017</p></td><td><p>9,694,524</p></td><td><p>2,197,166</p></td><td><p>542,695</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jan-12</p></td><td><p>1,141,584</p></td><td><p>441,151</p></td><td><p>998,017</p></td><td><p>9,341,759</p></td><td><p>2,426,531</p></td><td><p>602,695</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Feb-12</p></td><td><p>1,124,040</p></td><td><p>441,151</p></td><td><p>861,447</p></td><td><p>9,064,454</p></td><td><p>2,571,575</p></td><td><p>602,695</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-12</p></td><td><p>1,378,876</p></td><td><p>440,812</p></td><td><p>851,915</p></td><td><p>8,239,673</p></td><td><p>2,896,107</p></td><td><p>747,024</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sep-12</p></td><td><p>1,386,876</p></td><td><p>440,812</p></td><td><p>747,915</p></td><td><p>7,885,321</p></td><td><p>2,981,513</p></td><td><p>747,024</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><em>Fortnightly
collections</em></p><p> </p><table><thead><tr><td><p><em>Councils</em></p></td><td><p><em>Fortnightly
mixed food and garden waste + Fortnightly Residual</em></p></td><td><p><em>Fortnightly
residual and no separate food waste collection</em></p></td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><p>Jun-11</p></td><td><p>36</p></td><td><p>143</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nov-11</p></td><td><p>41</p></td><td><p>142</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jan-12</p></td><td><p>41</p></td><td><p>144</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Feb-12</p></td><td><p>44</p></td><td><p>149</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-12</p></td><td><p>47</p></td><td><p>145</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sep-12</p></td><td><p>49</p></td><td><p>147</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><table><thead><tr><td><p><em>Households</em></p></td><td><p><em>Fortnightly mixed
food and garden waste + Fortnightly Residual</em></p></td><td><p><em>Fortnightly residual
and no separate food waste collection</em></p></td></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><p>Jun-11</p></td><td><p>1,668,211</p></td><td><p>5,879,808</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nov-11</p></td><td><p>1,838,632</p></td><td><p>6,014,336</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Jan-12</p></td><td><p>1,860,532</p></td><td><p>6,032,245</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Feb-12</p></td><td><p>2,034,102</p></td><td><p>6,145,050</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Aug-12</p></td><td><p>2,170,143</p></td><td><p>6,173,402</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Sep-12</p></td><td><p>2,319,143</p></td><td><p>6,389,348</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Note:
Some councils may have a combination of the categories in the table below and have
been counted under each one that they provide.</p><p>This shows that 14 million households
in England have some form of weekly collection of smelly rubbish. Had the Government
not taken the actions it had, weekly collections would have disappeared in England
by 2015. This simple assertion can be illustrated by the extinction of weekly collections
in most of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have devolved Administrations
and policies of supporting fortnightly bin collections. Indeed, in Wales, the Labour-led
Welsh Government now has a policy of supporting monthly bin collections (Welsh Government,
<em>Municipal Sector Plan Part 1</em>, March 2011 and Welsh Government, <em>Cabinet
decision, Minister for Environment and Sustainable Development, Additional Funding
for Zero Waste Gurnos</em>, February 2012).</p><p>We have stopped the rot, but there
is more to do to support weekly bin collections. Many town hall jobsworths, over-zealous
NGOs and vested interests in the waste industry remain blindly obsessed with restricting
bin collections as a perverse policy goal in itself, and this is reflected in the
figures in the table above. Indeed, even Keep Britain Tidy – which one would think
would want regular rubbish collections to keep the streets clean – has been taken
over by a NGO (Waste Watch) which campaigns for fortnightly bin collections. Bin collections
are not viewed as a public service – but as a policy tool to deliver other arbitrary
policy goals.</p><p><em>More to do</em></p><p>One option which should be considered
is a minimum service standard – for example, the Household Waste Recycling Act 2003
already lays down minimum service requirements for recycling, and indeed, the Public
Health Act 1875 introduced a duty on local authorities to collect rubbish; this duty
was enhanced by the Public Health Act 1936 obliging them to collect household waste
weekly which existed until 1974.</p><p>Moving forward, we are open to representations
on how best to support frequent and comprehensive rubbish and recycling service; stand
up for taxpayers' interests from arbitrary state charges and taxes; and protect the
local environment, public health and local amenity from the nuisance of stinking rubbish.</p><p>
</p><p> </p>
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