Council may not face landfill fine
Tuesday, September 26 2006
Suggestions that Scottish Borders Council will be fined £20,000 for failing to meet recycling targets are likely to prove well wide of the mark, according to its senior management.
Suggestions that Scottish Borders Council will be fined £20,000 for failing to meet recycling targets are likely to prove well wide of the mark, according to its senior management.
Callum Hay, SBC Director of Technical Services, said that the figure had been used as a working figure to help identify potential budget overspends as early as possible, so that any required corrective action could be taken, but he is not convinced a fine will be imposed.
“It is true that we marginally exceeded our 2005/6 landfill targets and may be fined this year, but we’re not alone in Scotland in this,” Mr Hay said. “Part of the reason has been the delay in releasing central government funds for recycling schemes like ours, so we couldn’t start as early as we wanted to and that has contributed to the problem. And there are several factors that need to be taken into account to determine what the fine might be, or even if there will be a fine at all”.
A media report asserted this week that the Council “is to be fined at least £20,000” for overstepping its European Union landfill allowance.
But the fines are not automatically applied. Local authorities can appeal to Scottish Environment and Rural Affairs Minister, Ross Finnie, and he has discretion to waive them under certain circumstances.
Councillor David Paterson, SBC Executive Spokesman for Technical Services, believes that the case for appeal is a good one: “I’m optimistic that the Minister will recognise that the delay in getting funding to us was a problem. As soon as that was resolved, we were able to implement a domestic recycling scheme for every home in the Borders, and we did so in just 12 months. I think these factors will be a persuasive argument in favour of waiving the fine altogether.”
The latest estimates suggest that the Borders public is recycling up to 30% of domestic waste, a figure comfortably in excess of the current national target, clearly demonstrating the Council’s environmental commitment.
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