Weekly Rubbish Collections
Local Government has its origins. One of these important driving factors was the need to collect and dispose of rubbish, preferably weekly. If local government is not doing at least this, what is it about? Yet under Labour, Council Tax doubled and bin collections halved. Eight million households now have a fortnightly collection.
Labour ‘encouraged’ councils to eliminate weekly collections. They had plenty of policy around bin taxes, bin fines and bin cuts. At best, this could be described as the old socialist habit of excessive paternalism. More accurately it was an attempt at a ‘we know best’ approach of dictating policy from the centre. All too typically, it was about punishment rather than incentives.
Thankfully, the new government is launching a £250 million fund to help councils switch from fortnightly to better weekly bin collections. In Crawley, we have always kept a weekly service but it is gratifying that other councils coerced into switching away from this can now switch back. It is ironic that the previous government channelled its fortnightly collection guidance to local authorities through a quango (Quasi-Autonomous Non-Governmental Organisation) called WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme). We all know that quangos grew under Labour, and are generally and collectively one of the biggest sources of waste yet conceived in our political system.
Despite or because of the subtle reasoning employed by WRAP, most people see fortnightly collections as a ‘cost-cutting exercise that reduces the quality of the service rather than improving it’, according to an Ipsos-MORI poll. This seems to be a reasonable view but of course switching to fortnightly collections can generate more spending. It would typically be necessary to acquire new containers to put rubbish in, reflecting the increased storage time at the home.
The DCLG (Department for Communities and Local Government) will be allocating £250 million over the full CSR (Comprehensive Spending Review) period. Funding will be given to local authorities that guarantee to retain or reinstate weekly collections of waste for at least five years. Other reasonable requirements are that the local councils show a potential to increase recycling rates or deliver other environmental benefits and/or improved value for money. The government is also committed to supporting reward schemes which have been shown to increase recycling rates.
The differences in policy could not be more stark. Under Labour, we had the socialist diktat of penalise and incense. Under the Conservatives, we have the progressive mantra of reward and incentivise.
Councillor Bob Lanzer, Leader of Crawley Borough Council
4th October 2011