Weekly Bin Collection Pledge Scrapped

Plans to reinstate weekly bin collections have been shelved by the Government after a row between Cabinet ministers.

Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has announced the findings of the Government's Waste Review - a cross-department examination of how to tackle waste.

It contains a u-turn on the Communities' Secretary Eric Pickles' pledge to bring back weekly rubbish collections.

Sky News understands Mr Pickles and Ms Spelman have clashed over the policy.

One Whitehall source told Sky News: "Defra officials have been trying to block all the bin policies from day one."

However the Department for Environment claim they cannot force councils to reinstate weekly collections without giving them more money.

About 9.5 million households - almost half the homes in Britain - now have their general rubbish collected only every two weeks.

The review states: "The Government will be working with local councils to increase the frequency and quality of rubbish collections and make it easier to recycle, and to tackle measures which encourage councils specifically to cut the scope of collections.

"The Government understands that the public have a reasonable expectation that household waste collections services should be weekly, particularly for smelly waste."

Earlier this year it was reported ministers were going to offer financial incentives to councils to reinstate the weekly collections.

However it is understood that once the £100m cost was discovered the proposals were scrapped.

Bin collections are a thorny issue for the Conservatives, as a return to weekly collections was a key pledge in their election manifesto.

In opposition David Cameron criticised Labour for allowing more than half of councils to reduce rubbish collection to once a fortnight.

And Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said: "It's a basic right for every Englishman and woman to be able to put the remnants of their chicken tikka masala in their bin without having to wait two weeks for it to be collected."

However, there are some sweeteners for families in today's announcement.

Ministers have unveiled a range of measures on waste, including an end to "criminalising householders for trivial bin offences".

At the moment, people can be given a fixed-penalty notice of up to £110 if they repeatedly break the rules governing rubbish collections, such as recycling incorrectly or leaving waste out on the wrong day.

Meanwhile penalties for persistent fly-tippers or those who allow vast amounts of rubbish to pile up will be increased.

The Review will also include proposals to help companies and small businesses to help them reduce waste.

Under a strategy of "preventation is better than cure," the Government will work with the toy industry to reduce excessive packaging and the hospitality industry to cut down on waste.

But Labour claimed the u-turn left the Government in "chaos".

Caroline Flint , shadow communities secretary, said: "This latest evidence of the Government in chaos is a personal humiliation for Eric Pickles.

"He has spent years leading people on with overblown promises to restore weekly bin collections, despite Labour's warnings that he would never be able to deliver.

"The Local Government Secretary should learn the lesson that chasing headlines is no substitute for properly worked out policies to make communities cleaner, greener and better places to live."

Estimates of the costs of reinstating weekly bin rounds have been put at £140m in the first year alone.

But campaigners say the cost of doing nothing is incalculable, claiming the loss of the traditional weekly collection is causing problems with rats and pest infestation.

Father-of-three Spencer Feldman, who has been fighting for the resumption of his weekly bin service in Hatfield, said the whole situation was "shambolic".

"There's often infestations of maggots, flies and rats and foxes and bags emptied all over the place - it's not ideal," he said.

Residents across Britain are fed up with rubbish bins overflowing.

Bristol City Council introduced fortnightly rubbish collections in 2006, although food waste and recycling are still collected weekly.

In the five years since the scheme has been running, they say they have recycled 100,000 tonnes of waste that would otherwise have gone straight to landfill.

A spokeswoman said the city was now producing 23,000 tonnes less general waste than in 2006, and that recycling rates were up.

Councillor Gary Hopkins added a move back to weekly bin collections would risk losing that progress and was "totally unnecessary".