£250 million in funding for local authorities: But is it a bin half full or a bin half empty?

If you want to change perceptions and behaviours you need to know how people feel in the first place and why they act as they do. So if CLG is going to spend £250 million in support of weekly bin collections, we have to assume people are pretty desperate to see more of their bin men and will hail this Government initiative as a result. But are they, and will they? According to July’s LG Insight Survey of perceptions of local government, 80% of British adults are satisfied with the quality of refuse collection. Yes, some of these contented souls will be getting a weekly fix. But if the survey is representative then half of them are on a fortnightly run. The numbers suggest these poor deprived souls just aren’t that bothered about it.



So is Government just pandering to the vocal minority?


There is vocal opposition to almost every change - opposition that deserves a hearing. We can’t rush headlong into new ways of doing things until we understand what we might lose as a consequence. But the danger is that policy decisions don’t reflect what people really want.


It seems that everyone is fighting for our right to a weekly collection. Media campaigns are pressing for action and the opposition has crowed over Eric Pickles’ abandoned pledge on the issue. And I’m sure most people would prefer a weekly collection if given the straight choice. But they might say something different if they could save some other local service by holding onto their litter for a few days. Do people really want £250 million being spent in this way?


Under localism, the right people to make these choices are communities themselves and the right bodies to enable this decision making process are local councils. Policy choices need to be framed broadly - no issue exists in isolation - and people need to be asked where they would most like their money to be spent. Before councils make a bid for some of the central government cash on offer, perhaps some will be asking local people these difficult questions, rather than assuming they know the answers. They just might be wasting their energy on waste.
I suppose I’m lucky. My bins get collected every week already. But as a rule, when I wheel them out to stand like three colourful sentries on the path outside, I reckon each is about half full.