We’re ‘taxed’ £9.8m for rubbish (From Worcester News)

We’re ‘taxed’ £9.8m for rubbish

7:30am Friday 22nd March 2013 in News Exclusive By Tom Edwards

We’re ‘taxed’ £9.8m for rubbish

TAXPAYERS in Worcestershire are forking out record amounts in landfill charges – despite the amount of rubbish being buried in the ground falling rapidly.

Nearly £10 million in landfill ‘taxes’ went to the Government in 2012, compared to just £4.7 million in 2006, despite the amount of waste going to landfill actually dropping by a third over that period.

The Government has increased the eye-watering levies by £8 per tonne each year since 2008, meaning it has gone from £32 then to £72 this April.

Now, furious council chiefs say “enough is enough” and have revealed the onerous demands are starting to affect funding for key services.

Councillor Anthony Blagg, cabinet member for the environment, said: “The Government has decided to keep on increasing the tax and if it continues, it will end up astronomical.”

Worcestershire County Council is under major financial pressure and is currently cutting £20 million from spending every year to balance the books.

Although the tax costs are funded together with Herefordshire Council, as both authorities share waste disposal, they say the charges are hammering budgets.

The landfill tax figure is a total yearly bill both authorities have an obligation to meet together.

County Hall is planning to build a £120 million incinerator on land at Hartlebury, but the funding options are still up in the air and a likely opening date could be three years away.

Bosses are now backing calls from the Local Government Association (LGA) for landfill taxes to be capped.

Coun Blagg said: “It does affect what we can spend on other services and shows how important it is to convince people we need this incinerator - we’ve got to get away from landfill.

“We are diverting so much waste towards recycling but these taxes are still going up - the LGA is saying ‘enough is enough’ and we support that.”

The Government’s current timetable is for the landfill tax to continue to rise by £8 per tonne yearly in a bid to boost recycling rates and meet strict EU directives on reducing landfill.

An HM Treasury spokesman said: “Allowing local authorities to keep tax revenues such as those from landfill tax would have to come at the expense of existing grants.”

He added town halls get to keep council tax and from April, will benefit from keeping 50 per cent of business rates.

Worcester Green Party spokesman, Matthew Jenkins, said the figures show landfill tax “has worked” in discouraging the practise.

“As an incentive to recycle, it’s made a difference,” he said.

But Mike Jones, from the LGA’s environment board, said further increases should be avoided.

He said: “Landfill tax has played its part in encouraging us all to recycle, but any further increases would be misguided.”

The vast majority of rubbish is from homes, while a limited amount is from businesses which have agreements with the council.

PANEL - THE SURGE IN LANDFILL TAXES 2005/06 2006/07 2007/08 2008/09 2009/10 2010/11 2011/12 Waste(ton) 262,352 233,169 212,699 195,378 182,339 182,729 174,749 Tax paid £4.7m £4.8m £5.1m £6.2m £7.2m £8m £9.8m * Figures are for Worcestershire and Herefordshire Differences (%) Waste: down 33.4% Tax: up 102.8%

Comments(21)

l_pool says...
10:07am Fri 22 Mar 13

the landfill tax is costing the council that much they are making staff across all household waste site redundant how can this help with recycling??

this will lead to more landfill rubbish

they need to impose strict conditions on vans going up the tip because a van does not sort his rubbish out he throws all into landfill at the tip.

its not hard to recycle

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Mobey says...
11:00am Fri 22 Mar 13

What's the point of recycling anyway, it all goes up in smoke and then ends up in landfill any way??

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Malaky says...
11:32am Fri 22 Mar 13

The tax on a ton of landfill has gone up from £24 per to £80 in the last 5 years. This is entirely to comply with a European Directive, the Landfill Directive which was designed to suit the geography of Holland, not the UK.

The end-result is to force up council tax bills, and will lead councils to cut rubbish collections in a desperate attempt to save money due to this EU interference.

Fly tipping is already a serious problem across the country and these automatic, above inflation tax increases will only make the problem worse.

It is a simple and depressing fact that today the EU filters into every part of our daily lives, increasing costs and decreasing freedoms as it goes. The UK government are powerless to do anything about this EU directive.

A vote for UKIP is all that we can do to attempt to correct this bizarre situation.

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CJH says...
12:36pm Fri 22 Mar 13

Mobey wrote:
What's the point of recycling anyway, it all goes up in smoke and then ends up in landfill any way??

That's not actually true is it? And that is the sort of attitude which makes people not bothered about recycling. Not really helpful at all.

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Doogie 46 says...
3:08pm Fri 22 Mar 13

A serious missing fact in the printed article is, as Malaky says, it is an EU directive with which the council has to comply (I think the EU imposes punitive fines on countries who are not achieving targets on reducing waste to landfill).
The annual "price" increase per ton of landfill waste seems to be overtaking the reduction of tonnage of waste to landfill - will this eventually make the system unsustainable.

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scolesy says...
3:24pm Fri 22 Mar 13

I thought we had a state of the recycling plant and it was all being shipped to china??? Some one is making money and a lot of it,,,,but who????

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Malaky says...
5:45pm Fri 22 Mar 13

Doogie 46 wrote:
A serious missing fact in the printed article is, as Malaky says, it is an EU directive with which the council has to comply (I think the EU imposes punitive fines on countries who are not achieving targets on reducing waste to landfill).
The annual "price" increase per ton of landfill waste seems to be overtaking the reduction of tonnage of waste to landfill - will this eventually make the system unsustainable.

Thanks, but the other problem in the article is "the bosses" asking the UK government to cap these taxes. They can't. They are just the servants of the Brussels bureaucracy and have to do as they are told.

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l_pool says...
5:46pm Fri 22 Mar 13

scolesy wrote:
I thought we had a state of the recycling plant and it was all being shipped to china??? Some one is making money and a lot of it,,,,but who????

yes a private Spanish company runs it all in Hereford and Worcestershire.

thats where all the profit which is in the millions goes to

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Landy44 says...
7:38pm Fri 22 Mar 13

STOP THE PRESS..."Government takes money for one service no one is noticing to prop up other unsustainable services no one needs but that they think is a good idea"!

Seriously? Why is anyone surprised? This is just more of the legalised theft and hidden taxes that successive governments have used to prop up the ballooning bloated unsustainable unaffordable state and public sector.

It's not right, but it's just yet one more example of mismanagement and underhand practice.

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TDH123 says...
5:33am Sat 23 Mar 13

Mobey wrote:
What's the point of recycling anyway, it all goes up in smoke and then ends up in landfill any way??

This story simply highlights that many local authorities hand out numerous bins, force locals to sort household waste (often at great inconvenience and using water to wash items) so that the the council can sit back and maintain a facade that they are "green", something which they think will help them at the ballot box.
The reality is that a vast proportion (60-75%) of the carefully sorted household waste ends up in a land-fill site and is NOT recycled.

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Malaky says...
10:02pm Sat 23 Mar 13

TDH123 wrote:

Mobey wrote:
What's the point of recycling anyway, it all goes up in smoke and then ends up in landfill any way??
This story simply highlights that many local authorities hand out numerous bins, force locals to sort household waste (often at great inconvenience and using water to wash items) so that the the council can sit back and maintain a facade that they are "green", something which they think will help them at the ballot box.
The reality is that a vast proportion (60-75%) of the carefully sorted household waste ends up in a land-fill site and is NOT recycled.

Agreed, and like most idiotic things that are happening nowadays this new industry owes its very existence to the EU, who created the directives that the UK regional council, led by Cameron in the UK Parliament, have no option but to implement!

Ye Gods! Is there no end to the moronic, stupidity that emulates from Brussels? Almost every major problem that we face in this country can trace its roots back to Brussels.

The EU is the underlying problem, and we have to address it very soon. We we can start fighting back in May when the council elections are held. A vote for UKIP will be more than just a protest vote.

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DermotItis says...
10:49pm Sat 23 Mar 13

TDH123 wrote:

Mobey wrote:
What's the point of recycling anyway, it all goes up in smoke and then ends up in landfill any way??
This story simply highlights that many local authorities hand out numerous bins, force locals to sort household waste (often at great inconvenience and using water to wash items) so that the the council can sit back and maintain a facade that they are "green", something which they think will help them at the ballot box.
The reality is that a vast proportion (60-75%) of the carefully sorted household waste ends up in a land-fill site and is NOT recycled.

Exactly, we go to great lengths to sort it, clean it and get stuff ready for recycling. Then, a vast proportion (60-75%) of the carefully sorted household waste ends up in a land-fill site and is NOT recycled.

We are being made monkeys out of, by the environmental industry.

This is a fantastically expensive farce, and the sooner we stop it the better.

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Casmal says...
11:04pm Sat 23 Mar 13

Could we please stop the party political broadcasting, put a little perspective on this and get back to the point. Stupid things that Councils and the Government do are not all down to the EU. Look at the £1.67m MHDC is spending on wheelie bins to collect the last 20% of glass. This is not an EU Directive. This is not even a Government directive or Law. The EU Directive is much more sensible and if Local Authorities were to follow it properly they would be able to make an awful lot more money by having good quality recyclates, rather than the poorer quality recyclates that often end up in landfill. They could also choose to collect food for recycling, which would considerably reduce the landfill as well as the greenhouse gases.

Yes, some of the EU rulings and Directives are not good for Britain, but an awful lot are, so don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

And while you are giving careful consideration to what is worth keeping re the EU and what needs to be changed, apply the same consideration to your local council. That is by no means perfect, either.

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Casmal says...
11:23pm Sat 23 Mar 13

DermotItis wrote:

TDH123 wrote:

Mobey wrote:
What's the point of recycling anyway, it all goes up in smoke and then ends up in landfill any way??
This story simply highlights that many local authorities hand out numerous bins, force locals to sort household waste (often at great inconvenience and using water to wash items) so that the the council can sit back and maintain a facade that they are "green", something which they think will help them at the ballot box.
The reality is that a vast proportion (60-75%) of the carefully sorted household waste ends up in a land-fill site and is NOT recycled.
Exactly, we go to great lengths to sort it, clean it and get stuff ready for recycling. Then, a vast proportion (60-75%) of the carefully sorted household waste ends up in a land-fill site and is NOT recycled.

We are being made monkeys out of, by the environmental industry.

This is a fantastically expensive farce, and the sooner we stop it the better.

What exactly are you suggesting? That we don't bother to try to recycle anything at all? That it should all go to landfill and to hell with the environment? I don't understand what you think should be happening - even if your figures were right?

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imustbeoldiwearacap says...
8:55am Sun 24 Mar 13

Where is everybody getting these 60-75% numbers from. Can I have your source please, or is it someone told your mate at the pub?

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TDH123 says...
1:52pm Sun 24 Mar 13

imustbeoldiwearacap wrote:
Where is everybody getting these 60-75% numbers from. Can I have your source please, or is it someone told your mate at the pub?

I suggest that you look at the DEFRA website and give consideration to the targets imposed by the EU Directive! If you do not know about a topic why are you even commenting on it? Sarcasm is not your strong point either.

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Casmal says...
4:12pm Sun 24 Mar 13

TDH123 wrote:

imustbeoldiwearacap wrote:
Where is everybody getting these 60-75% numbers from. Can I have your source please, or is it someone told your mate at the pub?
I suggest that you look at the DEFRA website and give consideration to the targets imposed by the EU Directive! If you do not know about a topic why are you even commenting on it? Sarcasm is not your strong point either.

Interesting comment. Have you read the DEFRA website where is says that the UK dumps 7 million tons of food waste in landfill, which would otherwise generate -3-5TWh electricity by 2020. Councils like MHDC have chisen to ignore collecting and recycling foodwaste and presumably Worcester as well, thus not only causing them to give more landfill taxes to the Govt, but losing out on money they could actually have as income. This is their choice, not the EUs. The EU on the other hand is making it compulsory to authorities to have high quality recycling through separate stream recycling. This would dramatically reduce the amount of recyclates going to landfill. Authorities have been given seven years to comply, but MHDC and Worcester have totally ignored this and decided tonset up a commingling system. Again, this is totally their option, not the EUs. In addition they are laying themselves open to legal challenge from the EU and recyclers. I hope this has helped to enlighten those who don't know the facts!

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Stephen Brown says...
10:11pm Sun 24 Mar 13

It is indeed interesting to see Cllr Blagg bleating about landfill charges as if this situation is not of their own making.

He might do better by explaining why we are locked into a waste contract dating back to 1998 that they could have got out of after 10 years but did not and instead has numerous 'variations' all to the benefit of the contractor? A contract that effectively penalises us for recycling, meaning we get no financial return on any recyclates like some other councils do. The sole beneficiary is Mercia Waste and the recycling pfi plant shows no improvement in performance in 3 years despite costing us £12million a year, and with spare capacity of 30,000 tonnes a year.

Had they not got this contract, they could have explored better alternatives, more composting, food waste collections etc that would be half the cost of landfilling or a third of the costs of incineration - something else they propose when there is just 10 years left on the existing contract against a backdrop of falling waste and incinerator over-capacity across the region. Not to mention another burden to the taxpayer of £6million a year more (which I think is underestimated) and a potential to give the contractor a huge financial balloon sum when the contract expires at the end of the current contract in 10 years time if its built, along with additional charges for incinerating stuff that could be better recycled etc.

But Cllr Blagg blames the Govt, blames the landfill taxes, blames anyone but those responsible - the council and himself as its happened on his watch. The Districts have to take their share of the blame too..but hang on some of those in charge of the Districts sit on the county as well. No conflict there is there....

Then finally, he complains it's affecting other services.

You couldn't make this stuff up except it's real.

£32million a year real, soon to be £38million a year real...all thanks to those in charge in council chambers across Worcstershire, so yes, it is political.

It's affecting other services Cllr Blagg for no other reason than you and the cabinet haven't got a grip or grasp of the real problem because you cant negotiate a contract properly and have allowed Mercia to dominate the deal and be in receipt of huge sums of taxpayers money in the process.

The real waste going on here is the council wasting our money!

It is indeed interesting to see Cllr Blagg bleating about landfill charges as if this situation is not of their own making. He might do better by explaining why we are locked into a waste contract dating back to 1998 that they could have got out of after 10 years but did not and instead has numerous 'variations' all to the benefit of the contractor? A contract that effectively penalises us for recycling, meaning we get no financial return on any recyclates like some other councils do. The sole beneficiary is Mercia Waste and the recycling pfi plant shows no improvement in performance in 3 years despite costing us £12million a year, and with spare capacity of 30,000 tonnes a year. Had they not got this contract, they could have explored better alternatives, more composting, food waste collections etc that would be half the cost of landfilling or a third of the costs of incineration - something else they propose when there is just 10 years left on the existing contract against a backdrop of falling waste and incinerator over-capacity across the region. Not to mention another burden to the taxpayer of £6million a year more (which I think is underestimated) and a potential to give the contractor a huge financial balloon sum when the contract expires at the end of the current contract in 10 years time if its built, along with additional charges for incinerating stuff that could be better recycled etc. But Cllr Blagg blames the Govt, blames the landfill taxes, blames anyone but those responsible - the council and himself as its happened on his watch. The Districts have to take their share of the blame too..but hang on some of those in charge of the Districts sit on the county as well. No conflict there is there.... Then finally, he complains it's affecting other services. You couldn't make this stuff up except it's real. £32million a year real, soon to be £38million a year real...all thanks to those in charge in council chambers across Worcstershire, so yes, it is political. It's affecting other services Cllr Blagg for no other reason than you and the cabinet haven't got a grip or grasp of the real problem because you cant negotiate a contract properly and have allowed Mercia to dominate the deal and be in receipt of huge sums of taxpayers money in the process. The real waste going on here is the council wasting our money! Stephen Brown

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Mobey says...
10:35pm Sun 24 Mar 13

I'm only saying it goes up in smoke when it catches fire, a few recycling places have caught fire recently such as Lawrence Recyling.

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MJI says...
1:07pm Mon 25 Mar 13

People actually chuck food, that sounds like a very strange idea.
.
Why don't the councils try lying about the amount htey landfilled so they don't get taxed as much?

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imustbeoldiwearacap says...
3:19pm Mon 25 Mar 13

TDH123 wrote:

imustbeoldiwearacap wrote:
Where is everybody getting these 60-75% numbers from. Can I have your source please, or is it someone told your mate at the pub?
I suggest that you look at the DEFRA website and give consideration to the targets imposed by the EU Directive! If you do not know about a topic why are you even commenting on it? Sarcasm is not your strong point either.

"The reality is that a vast proportion (60-75%) of the carefully sorted household waste ends up in a land-fill site and is NOT recycled"

So you are actually saying that in Worcestershire, 60-75% of the recycled waste is sent to landfill? Again, please may I have your source of this information!

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