So we are all to be charged £30.00 by our local councils because they haven't been paid landfill tax owed to them by the government. Is it me or have we all gone barmy! - Not only do we now sort all our refuse out into neat little recycling bins, thereby saving our councils money - they now want us to pay twice for the privelidge.
This is an exert from Gaurdian.co.uk
Millions of people who recycle their rubbish could find it becomes a futile
exercise due to the government's failure to provide enough facilities to prevent
it from being dumped in landfill sites, a
report from a Whitehall watchdog warns today.
Homeowners and tenants could
also have to foot the bill for fines totalling hundreds of millions of pounds
because their council has fallen behind in developing recycling schemes.
The EU has set a deadline of 2013 to halve dumping in landfill sites; the
government faces fines if it misses the target and will pass this on to
councils.
The National Audit Office says there is little chance of completing
a programme of building incinerators and large-scale recycling schemes by
2013.
The government had tried to fund the programme by raising cash from
banks under the private finance initiative, but many of the schemes can no
longer get money because of the credit crunch.
Since many involve building
large incinerators, they are also running into opposition from residents,
resulting in an average delay of more than 19 months in obtaining planning
permission. It can take between five and nine years for a new plant to come on
stream.
According to the auditors, only two big waste treatment plants in
England have come on stream since the programme was launched in 1999 and another
nine projects have been approved. A further 18 are in the pipeline.
The two
completed schemes are in Leicester and east London. Other schemes for
incinerators planned in 2003 and 2006 have not even started; they include
Newhaven in East Sussex, Nottinghamshire and Cornwall.
The report says:
"England is likely to meet its 2010 landfill reduction targets but to meet the
2013 target the Department [for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs] will need
to reduce substantially the time taken to procure projects and bring them into
operation ... It will not be met if there continue to be programme delays or the
infrastructure built does not work as efficiently as expected."
Edward Leigh,
Tory chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, said: "The department
sat on its hands for four years after the EU in 1999 set England a testing
timetable for reducing the amount of biodegradable rubbish sent to
landfill."
Councils also warned that they faced problems in meeting targets.
Paul Bettison, chairman of the Local Government
Association environment board, said: "Councils are pulling out the stops to
deliver projects that will deal with waste. But the reality is the government
has hit the council tax payer with a £1.5bn bill over the next three years by
going back on its undertaking to refund money raised through landfill tax to
local authorities. This is cash that could be used to build the facilities that
are needed to divert waste away from landfill."
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