Forest council faces £800,000 costs as recycling deal to be torn up

NEW FOREST District Council could lose more than £800,000 a year under plans to tear up a Hampshire-wide recycling agreement.

The county council, which disposes of waste, intends to end a deal in which it subsidises Hampshire’s 11 district councils, which do the collections, by about £8.2m annually.

At a meeting of NFDC’s Conservative ruling cabinet Cllr Alison Hoare, the member for environment and regulatory services, said the yearly cost could amount to £805,000 in lost payments and new charges from April 2021.

She admitted to being “shocked” when the announcement was made – but defended the move by HCC, which is also controlled by the Tories, as an “opportunity”.

“As a council we want to recycle more and residents want to recycle more. We all want the same thing. I think it’s time to look outside the box and assess all the options available, as are other districts and boroughs,” she said.

“I think it’s very prudent that we are reviewing our waste strategy for our district. We have the members’ work group who are working very hard.”

As reported in the A&T, Cllr Hoare has refused to rule out the introduction of wheelie bins as a way of improving NFDC’s recycling rates, which are among the lowest in the country.

She told the cabinet that on current figures NFDC was estimated to end up paying £120,000 a year to HCC for non-recyclable material, such as mixed plastic and food waste.

It would also lose £460,000 from income currently paid to it by HCC for selling on certain materials, and £220,000 in recycling credits which NFDC has received since the 1990s.

But Cllr Hoare said: “We can do really good things and I am getting more optimistic that we can achieve our goal.”

As reported in the A&T, HCC pointed to a looming £80m gap in its overall finances next year when it made the announcement in September to charge councils more for waste disposal.

Cllr Rob Humby, HCC’s cabinet member for economy, transport and environment, said he wanted to save the money to protect the recycling centres network, including Efford, Marchwood and Somerley.

He said one in every five lorryloads of kerbside recycling at HCC facilities currently fails to meet recycling standards, and district councils had “considerable room for improvement”.

Before the meeting Cllr David Harrison, leader of NFDC’s Liberal Democrat opposition group, claimed some authorities were planning to take HCC to court over its intention to end the recycling payments agreement.

He said: “Clearly it undermines what you often hear from politicians that we ‘must all work together for the wider community benefit’.”

However, NFDC leader Cllr Barry Rickman told the A&T he did not regard HCC’s plan as a breach of contract and would not be joining any legal action.

Cllr Rickman, whose deputy is HCC cabinet member Cllr Edward Heron, rejected the idea of “ganging up against another council when we have a problem to solve. We need to be working through this together”.