Daily Mail: Outrage over £100 'recycling blackmail'

BY CHRIS BROOKE

HOUSEHOLDERS may be 'blackmailed' by their council into going green with a £100 recycling charge on annual council tax bills.

The money would be refunded if residents took part in recycling and composting schemes and the local authority met waste reduction targets.

The scheme could be introduced in Seaford, East Sussex, despite being criticised for its negative rather than positive approach to recycling.

The town council has approved the plan and the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is now being asked to give it the goahead. If successful, the controversial idea could be copied across the country.

Local authorities are being forced to look at new ways to promote recycling to meet tough government targets.

In East Sussex around 29 per cent of waste is currently recycled, but the figure is required to reach 35 per cent by 2015 and 50 per cent by 2020.

Details of what residents would have to do to get their £100 refunded have yet to be worked out.

However, there is already huge opposition to the charge from pressure groups and the seaside town's 25,000 residents.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, branded the plan 'absolutely outrageous'.

He said: 'If town halls really did care about the environment they would offer real financial incentives, say £10 or £20 off a monthly council tax bill.

'Families have never paid so much council tax and now they want to chuck on another £100 to blackmail people into recycling. It beggars belief.'

Gail Elliston of the Seaford Residents' Association said: 'It seems to me it has nothing to do with recycling and everything to do with raising money.

'I can imagine a riot in Seaford if this went through.'