| SPOTLIGHT |
Council leaders have welcomed a government consultation that could lead to the closure of a legal loophole allowing organisations like hospitals and schools to get rid of their waste for free.
Defra and the Welsh Assembly Government are proposing to either replace or amend the Controlled Waste Regulations 1992 in relation to certain non-domestic properties.
The two bodies suggested that the regulations were causing problems for councils and their customers “because they are difficult to interpret and use out of date terminology”. The regulations also distort the market by preventing councils from making a charge for the disposal of waste, they said.
Under the proposals, all premises listed in Schedule 2 of the Controlled Waste Regulations would be affected. Aside from hospitals and schools and colleges, these include self catering holiday accommodation and caravan parks, prisons and care homes.
The government’s preferred option is to introduce new regulations, rather than guidance on the existing regulations. These new regulations would be clearer and more consistent with other waste legislation, and reduce the administrative burden on local authorities.
“They would also give more control of waste disposal choices to Schedule 2 institutions as these premises would be able to decide if they were to continue using the local authority at a charge or to seek a more tailored service from a private waste collection company, as many do already,” Defra said.
Environment Minister Lord Henley said: “Under the current regulations local authorities effectively subsidise waste management costs of these Schedule 2 premises by paying the disposal costs from their own budgets.
“The proposals in the consultation would enable local authorities to make a charge for collection and disposal services from the types of premises listed in Schedule 2 of the current Regulations if they chose to do so. The proposals would create a level playing field for local authorities, businesses and their customers and would mean that councils would no longer have to subsidise services provided to certain premises.”
Welsh Assembly Government Environment Minister Jane Davidson said her ambition was for Wales to recycle 70% of its waste by 2025.
“If we are to achieve this, however, we must ensure that we have the appropriate waste infrastructure, services and legislation in place,” she said.
The Local Government Association backed the consultation. Cllr Gary Porter, chairman of its environment and housing programme board, said the cost of waste disposal had rocketed in recent years and council taxpayers had been left to pick up the bill.
“With landfill tax now standing at £48 per tonne, councils can ill-afford to insulate any organisation from the full cost of dealing with their waste sustainably and the urgent need to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and increase the rate of recycling,” he argued.
“This is a chance to close a long standing loophole in the law that has allowed institutions such as hospitals, prisons and schools to get rid of their waste for free. The burden for paying for the disposal of this waste has unfairly fallen on council taxpayers. This offers an excellent opportunity to redress that balance and bring fairness back into the system.”
Cllr Porter estimated that allowing councils to charge for disposing of waste from these institutions had the potential to save them more than £60m per year.
The consultation closes on 14 January 2011.
