Pickles goes to war on weekly bin collection
By politics.co.uk staff
The new local government secretary has picked weekly bin collections as his first campaign, with a promise to scrap fortnightly collections.
Eric Pickles said Labour ministers had been the ones to decide against weekly collection, and they then blamed the decision on local councils.
The move was designed to cut costs, rather than encourage recycling, he said.
The local government secretary claimed to have found evidence of ministerial action via documents from the Audit Commission, which inspects councils.
Local authorities would have been marked down if they refused to take up fortnightly collections, Mr Pickles said.
The Audit Commission will receive a letter soon from the secretary of state demanding they repeal the guidelines.
“The minimum life cycle of the fly is 14 days in the UK, so a fortnightly collection should be okay,” the guidelines read.
Mr Pickles branded the system “a conspiracy”.
