London’s landfill sites will soon be filled to capacity so the Government plans to dump it in Cambridgeshire where the local authority has excelled itself with achieving the UK’s top recycling rate.
The plan could see 5.7 million tonnes of commercial, industrial and municipal waste dumped in the county’s landfill sites between 2006-21 -three tonnes of waste is equivalent to the weight of one elephant. Other counties will also be dumped on by London.
Should the good boys like Cambridgeshire have to take London’s rubbish because it has been effective at reducing and recycling waste, as well as planning ahead which Ken has plainly failed to do?
County councillor John Reynolds has every reason to feel vexed:
“All authorities in the East of England and the South are having to do this, we in Cambridgeshire are not the only ones. We have been lobbying London to become more proactive. The recycling rate in London is just under 20 per cent – in Cambridgeshire, it was 52 per cent in the last three months.
“We are somewhat upset to say the least. What we want is for London to work much harder at reducing the amount of waste going to landfill. All we can do is to give advice to the Government – it will be the Government’s decision.”
Coun Simon Kindersely hits the nail on the head too:
“It strikes me as frankly a bit of a nerve for the Government to require us to handle London’s waste when it has created four growth areas, of which we are one and the Thames Gateway is another.
“It would be more sustainable for London to deal with its own waste when it has its own growth areas. It would be interesting to know what the council’s attempt to avoid London waste was.”
What message does this give to local authorities to reduce and recycle waste if their landfill sites are then filled by those that don’t perform? Surely each area should deal with its own rubbish, but perhaps clever Ken planned it this way. After all, it has to go somewhere….
We won’t give you any more rubbish as long as you take Ken off our hands….
Hi the ans is no,What will happen to children who live and play there(dump it in london)
Thanks for sharing
Wish you well
Tom, no thanks, you can’t dump Ken on us.
That’s appalling that they want to dump London’s rubbish elsewhere. As you say, Ellee, it is no incentive to town councils who are making an effort to recycle.
Thanks for visiting my blog Ellee. I love the design of yours. I’ll be back, I’m always interested in PR / Freelancing etc.
thanks again,
H
That is appalling to think that the rubbish of London should be dumped elsewhere. What would Ken say if the situation was reversed?
is there one, best way to blog?…
Ellee Seymour pointed me to an article by Michael Gove for the Times about the quality of blogs. His argument, which seems well-rooted in an understanding of the history of blogging is that quality will out. Many blogs, he argues, are doomed to obscur…
I think it depends on how much you charge them 🙂 Think of all those reduced council tax bills…. anyone for the Simpsons?
The motivation here has got to be money. Cambridgeshire, by recycling more has increased its capacity to in its landfills, so therefore can charge London to take its waste, and I can bet they won’t be doing it cheaply either.
It’s similar to a situation we have here in Coventry where we have a waste to energy incinerator. By increasing the amount of recycling that goes on within the city there becomes more room in the incinerator to take rubbish from elsewhere, at a cost, which helps to top up the coffers nicely. The advantage to us local Coventrians is that we get recycling schemes all over the place and a cheaper council. There isn’t that much of an advantage to the surrounding ares, but that’s their problem for not recycling more. The cost of having the waste sent to Coventry (no pun intended, oh alright yeah it was) should encourage the surrounding areas to start recycling more and if they don’t then it’s down to the electorate to hold their local government to account on the matter.
I suspect the situation with London/Cambridgeshire is much the same and Cambridgeshire council tax payers should be pretty pleased with it. The folk in London however should be looking to hold Ken to account about it.
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bye
Noushad.TT
Mike, unfortunately, our council tax always go up so local people don’t feel any benefit from their good deeds. I do like community recycling schemes, such as the one in my village, which receives a cash reward for the amount collected from recycling points which is then spent in the community.
Noushad, I’m glad you like the stories and pics, good luck with your web too.
Hi Ellee,
Some councils would argue that the money saved goes into other services rather than a tax cut, or maybe that the rise isn’t as high because of the money saved. However, it’s always worth checking up on your local council as to where the money actually goes.
It may be that it’s being floundered on silly water features. If I were a Cambridgeshire resident I’d be tempted to ask the Councillor responsible to provide the information.
The community recycling scheme you mention does actually sound like a neat idea.