Communities Secretary Eric Pickles' pledge to set up a £250 million fund to incentivise weekly rubbish collections has provoked strong reaction from Westminster, local councils and the British public. Arguing that weekly rubbish collections are a "basic right", he said the money would not "force" local authorities to do a weekly collection, but would stop financially rewarding fortnightly removals.
Former deputy prime minister John Prescott even started his own hashtag on twitter: "we're all bin this together" to which there has been vehement response.
Pickles' announcement comes before the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester next week. Caroline Flint, Shadow Communities Secretary labelled it a "conference stunt" on BBC News:
"Here we are. They are going to conference in Manchester this week and they are pulling out the hat £250m to bribe councils to follow what Eric Pickles wants them to do. That is to save Eric Pickles’ face and what is worrying is why if there is £250m available they are not thinking about Sure Start centres and helping young people in further education."
Questioning the opportune timing of Pickles' announcement, Friends of the Earth's waste campaigner Julian Kirby expressed dismay, saying that weekly collections discourage recycling which helps save money. He told the BBC:
"I think actually what you have got is Pickles the Communities Secretary who is trying to score some political points by finding some money from out of who knows where."
“If he is saying: we have found all this money and we want you to be doing this but obviously you decide, that is pressure on councils reverting to a waste collection system that is bad for recycling because it causes people to waste more. If [the public] put what could be recycled into the black bag collection it will also cost councils much, much more."
Environmental concerns were aired by Kevin Brennan, Labour MP and former Minister for business, innovation and skills, tweeting:"Green govt? Tory Lib coalition Coalition higher speed limits - subsidy for weekly rubbish collection - Labour Welsh govt - plastic bag levy"
However Pickles found an unlikely ally in Gisela Stuart, Labour MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, tweeting:"who ever thought fortnightly bin collections were a good idea?"
New Local Government Network (NLGN) suggested spending a quarter of a billion pounds on bin collection was "eccentric" and the money could be put to better use.
“At a time when councils are facing deep spending cuts, the government’s crusade for weekly bin collections is starting to look a little eccentric. The £250m of new money announced today is the equivalent of a year’s worth of residential or nursing care for 9,335 elderly people.
"With social care costs going through the roof, most councils would prefer that CLG’s money had been spent on looking after the vulnerable, rather than on providing extra waste collections which many residents are prepared to do without.”
But Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers’ Alliance applauded the move saying while rubbish collections were not a "sexy issue" there were of "great concern" to voters
"Woe betide the councils who do not reinstate weekly bin collections or who persist with plans to scrap this basic service, causing misery to residents."
The Coalition's proposed commitment to localism came under attack, with Pickles accused of dictating how local councils spend their money from Whitehall. Dorothy Thornhill, Deputy Leader of the LGA's Lib Dem Group said Pickles was an "extreme centraliser".
"Arrangements for bin collection and recycling should be determined by local people according to local preferences, not by an increasingly bossy Secretary of State."
This was refuted by Bob Neil, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at Communities and Local Government. He distinguished between "encouraging" councils and telling them what to do, arguing pushing for weekly bin collections was "very much compatible with the localism agenda. Under the previous government local councils were being very financially directly penalised if they didn’t go down a one size fits all model of fortnightly collections.”
"We no longer want you to have a financial obstacle to going back to weekly collections if that’s what you and your residents think that’s right for your area. It’s about giving them the choice. All the evidence suggest most people particularly want the smelly stuff taken away on a weekly basis I think that’s reasonable."