The new District Council’s cabinet met on Wednesday:
This is from the notes of the meeting:
Minutes of Recycling and Waste Partnership Board held on 24 April 2019
The Portfolio Holder for Environment wished to thank the outgoing Portfolio Holder Councillor Tom Wright for his valued contribution over the last 4 years.
RESOLVED (2) that it be noted:
That any plans contemplated for the possible reduction to the level of the council’s recycling service would not make any sense to the protection of the Environment, to customer service and to the council’s budget. The implications to increased collections were not trivial.
Minutes of the meeting of Cabinetheld at Council Chamber, Blackdown House, Honitonon 5 June 2019
Because there are fears that the government is putting pressure on local authorities, as reported by Devon Live:
Plans that could see East Devon return to fortnightly rubbish collections slammed as ‘absolute nonsense’
Proposals that could force councils to collect residual waste at least every two weeks have been slammed by senior councillors in East Devon as ‘nonsense’. The Government is currently consulting on plans to overhaul the waste system and introduce consistent collections across the entire country.
But Cllr Tom Wright, who was the previous portfolio holder for the environment, told East Devon District Council’s new cabinet on Wednesday night that the proposal put forward by the government for a minimum of fortnightly collections for residual waste would have a severe impact on East Devon.
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Back in 2017, East Devon District Council switched to a three-weekly residual waste collection, with recycling rates having risen more than 10 per cent since the switch took place. In 2016/17 the district was recycling 46 per cent of its waste, which increased to 54.2 per cent in 2017/18 following the introduction of the new waste service. Final figures for 2018/19 have not yet been published, but the council was averaging nearly 60 per cent recycling rates for the first 10 months of the year.
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As covered in the national press:
Defra could sacrifice localism in its drive for consistent collections