Wheelie bins roll on

After months of debate councillors have rubber-stamped their previous decision to introduce an alternate weekly collection using wheelie bins with the first ones to be issued in Chigwell in late October.

With 239 other local authorities in England and Wales already using wheelie bins Epping Forest Council believes such a move is the only way to increase its recycling levels.

And if it does not greatly improve the amount of waste going for recycling then the council and council tax payers are facing a possible £1.75m a year landfill tax bill by 2009-10.

Already the council, which recycled 21.54 per cent of all household waste in 2004-05, has to double that figure in four years if it is to meet targets. If it does not it is facing an estimated £1m a year penalties.

Council chiefs believe alternate weekly collections with wheelie bins will force people to separate their rubbish, and increase the amount that is recycled.

A Tory motion that the scheme be trialled in Ongar and Buckhurst Hill for 18 months was rejected, on the casting vote of council leader John Knapman.

It means the new system will be rolled out from late October-early November starting in Chigwell, with a second area getting the bins about four months later.

No new areas will then get bins until after summer 2006 when a further area will see the new system. It is hoped all the district will have wheelie bins in about two years.

However people living in flats, terraced houses and other homes where wheelie bins are considered impractical will still be able to have a sack collection.

Environmental protection portfolio holder Derek Jacobs told Monday's cabinet meeting: "The fact is landfill is running out it's bad environmentally. There are better ways of going about disposing of our rubbish."

He said that after Essex district and borough councils rejected the incineration option recycling was the only possible solution.

Now failure to reach the recycling targets, which Mr Jacobs said were high-30s to mid-40 per cent, would mean financial penalties.

He said: "It (the county council) will say Epping Forest, you owe us so much' or it could require us to do our collections in a certain manner so we can up the recycling."

Conservative councillor Chris Whitbread, who proposed the 18-month trial for Ongar and Buckhurst Hill, said: "We need to roll it out gradually and see how it goes, how we increase recycling compared with other areas.

"We need to address people'concerns and see what they think of it after a decent period of time."

But Mr Jacobs said such a trial would have cost implications, cover only about 15 per cent of the district and delay a full wheeled-bin system by two years or more.

Liberal Democrat Michael Heavens said issues had been raised, and resolved, through talks with other local authorities, and now was the time to get on with it.

"There may be some benefit in a trial period to give our staff some experience with working with people on the doorstep, but I can't see it could be for any other reason as the issues have been discussed."

Mr Heavens added: "If you hold it back you're involving the council in considerably increased costs. We need to get this going as soon as possible."

• Councillors have the option of calling in' Monday's decision and having it referred to the overview and scrutiny committee. Councillors have five working days following the publication of the minutes to call in' the matter.