Landfill tax needs recycling

Residents of the City of York are rallying together to demand that the City of York Council use money from an unpopular landfill tax in order to develop local recycling facilities

The Liberal Democrat group in York feels that the funds from the landfill are “owed to the city” and is pressuring Whitehall to return the funds for local use.

The York Council and 80 other local authority leaders have signed a letter to Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, urging him to honour a pledge made in 2003. The Secretary pledged to return the profits from landfill tax to locals at that time but has failed to follow through.

Residents must pay the environmental tax in addition to the charges brought by private landfill companies for waste disposal. In April, the tax increased from £24 to £32 a tonne.

Residents feel that these funds would be best used developing local recycling facilities but the government has said that councils will not receive funding for this purpose in the near future.

Taxpayers in the York council area will pay an estimated £2 million of landfill tax.

A letter from the Government on the issue read: We do not expect councils will struggle with financial pressures in dealing with waste or elsewhere.”

Councillor Andrew Waller, the executive member for neighbourhood services for York Council, said: “Clearly they have no idea of the financial burden that councils are under, and how the increase this year will affect our budgeting.”