No time to waste in the battle of the bins

Acid Test - Durham County Council in the spotlight: On the eve of the biggest council shake-up in a generation, Local Government Minister John Healey said: “The acid test will be whether these councils deliver their promises including better services, leadership and achieving more for less.” Two months after the unitary Durham County Council came into being, The Northern Echo continues its year-long series taking an in-depth look at whether the council is meeting that test.

RUBBISH is big business.

Companies fight bare knuckle over waste management and recycling contracts, and councils across the region fear being hit with debilitating landfill tax bills.

Meanwhile, the closest many householders ever come to their local authority is the weekly or fortnightly bin collection.

Get rubbish wrong and the council responsible will suffer.

Terry Collins, Durham County Council’s new corporate director of neighbourhood services, says: “Many people see refuse collection as the key thing the council does, so it’s essential the service is of high quality.”

In the run up to re-organisation, the Labour-run county council said it would integrate the rubbish collection regimes of the dying district councils with recycling and waste disposal, viewing the shake-up as a great opportunity to improve performance and customer satisfaction.

However, in February, Councillor Bob Young, then cabinet member for the environment, said that although multiple levels of service existing under the same council would be “unfair”, people would not see a single waste collection system introduced until at least April next year.

What system will be adopted will not be decided until after the publication of a waste strategy, due later this summer.

The plan is expected to prioritise waste reduction, focusing on reducing food packaging and increasing education.

It could also contain proposals to use less vehicles and make savings and changes to depots.

However, officials and politicians know residents making up their minds on the new council may not wait until their strategy kicks in – if their bin is not collected this week or next week, it could cost votes or, potentially, cash.

The council faces tough targets on recycling: 35 per cent of waste produced this year, 40 per cent next year, 45 per cent in 2015 and 50 per cent by 2020.

Coun Young, now cabinet member for the environment and leisure, admits the council will miss this year’s goal, although “not by much”.

He says: “These are very stretching targets but we’re up for it. We are determined to catch up between now and 2020.”

Inside County Hall, there remains hope the shift to a unitary council will help meet the targets, with Mr Collins calling it a “fantastic opportunity”, which will make things “much easier”.

This sense of optimism was boosted by the council’s response to the collapse of Greencycle, which collected recycling waste on behalf of four district councils until going into administration in March – just days before the new council took over.

The authority took the service in-house, recruiting some Greencycle staff and scrambling street cleaners and gardeners to man the bin wagons.

“Most people didn’t even notice a difference,” Mr Collins says. “Even in the first week we collected 90 per cent. By Monday it was 100 per cent.

“The staff and team were magnificent.”

Officials are also buoyed by the way people have responded to recycling and efforts to reduce waste – there are signs the overall level could fall for the first time in years.

The expansion of a scheme for collecting garden rubbish, although not yet available across the whole county, has also proved popular.

But public opinion could easily change.

There are suspicions about what happens to recyclable materials and many residents are shocked that they must now pay to have bulky waste collected.

Councillor Nigel Martin, leader of the council’s Liberal Democrat opposition, says people should be able to coo r d i n a t e collections to save money. Coun Young insists the service is excellent, heavily subsidised and remains cheaper than under other councils.

Meanwhile, introducing a countywide waste collection system would create winners and losers. But variations would leave the council vulnerable to accusations of running a ‘two-tier’ service.

Coun Martin says: “The public purse has to recognise there are issues to do with remoteness.

“On the other hand, everybody pays their council tax and they are due, as a right, to a reasonable service.”

Mr Collins suggests the system adopted might not be “one size fits all” but rather have local arrangements.

Coun Young says he is committed to achieving the same quality of service across the county.

The council could save money by cutting collections to once a fortnight, but risks public opposition.

Coun Martin says the question has got to be asked, while Councillor Brian Stephens, cabinet member for neighbourhoods and partnerships, stresses policies will be developed in consultation with communities.

Big decisions also loom over the council’s landfill contract, currently held by Premier Waste Management, a firm 84 per cent owned by the authority.

Coun Martin wants a “clear and transparent” selection process.

Given the number of key decisions likely to enter the intray at the council’s neighbourhood services department in the year ahead, the authority would seem to have good grounds for asking people wishing to pass verdict on its waste and recycling record to wait and see.

Its twin goals of improving performance and customer satisfaction are closely entwined.

If performance does not improve, householders could lose faith, putting less effort into recycling or resorting to fly tipping, which would in turn cost the council and probably cause further service deterioration.

Hence, the next few months will be essential. Whether taxpayers have the patience to allow the council’s new policies and systems to take effect could have a substantial bearing on the success of the whole authority.

Why recycling offers new hope

RECENT recycling successes offer hope of broader change, according to a climate campaigner.

Janie Bickersteth, from Climate Durham, said there had been a huge change in attitudes towards recycling, giving her hope that other environmental goals could be achieved.

Climate Durham is a coalition of residents, firms and organisations aiming to inspire people to adopt low carbon lifestyles and cut carbon emissions.

Ms Bickersteth, who chairs the group, praised Durham County Council’s recycling record, but said the overall level of waste produced must be cut.

She urged people to buy only as much food as they need, think about how much packaging they are buying and grow food at home.

“The concern is, people are saying that recycling saves the planet. I think if you interviewed people about the environment they would say they’re recycling,” she said.

“But it’s a drop in the ocean of what’s happening.

“The way that people have understood recycling and have understood about landfill gives me hope that there’s an opportunity for people to grasp a little more than that.

“We’ve emptied our wheelie bins. The next step is to reduce what’s going into our recycling bins – by composting, wormery or producing less waste in the first place.”

Ms Bickersteth also urged the council to publish more details and statistics about its recycling work.