A District Council in South Norfolk has been forced to scrap a five year bin-chipping trial due to technical problems with the necessary weighing equipment.
According to reports, council leaders ordered the “switch off” after the they identified “serious shortcomings, including inconsistent and unreliable weighing data, computer problems, electrical and equipment failures and unacceptable delays to the daily bin rounds”.
Councillor David Bills, a cabinet member for Environment, Health, Recycling and Safety, said: “The whole concept of pay-as-you-throw is fraught with problems. It is yet again the government threatening people with a new tax rather than encouraging recycling. People may start putting rubbish into neighbours’ bins, burning rubbish or even fly-tipping. It just does not make sense.”
The council is only one organisation that applied for a grant from DEFRA to help fund the trial. DEFRA made a point to deemphasise that the South Norfolk District Council’s trial is separate from the five local authority pilot schemes expected to launch next year.
“We did not give South Norfolk Council funding to run a financial incentive pilot scheme, or dictate that they use any particular method of technology to support their refuse collection and recycling scheme. Ultimately it is for local authorities to make decisions about the best waste and recycling schemes for their area, based on local needs,” said a DEFRA spokesperson.
“This money was given to South Norfolk for them to extend their existing recycling scheme. Exactly how they did that was up to them and the decision to spend it as they did, on micro-chipped bins, was theirs to make. It is not connected with the proposal to allow up to five local authorities to run financial incentive pilot schemes, which would start at the very earliest from April 2009.”
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