The Government has rebuffed calls for transparency around funding for food waste collections, insisting it is not in the ‘public interest'.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) told chief executive of Wyre Forest DC, Ian Miller, it could not reveal details of an internal assessment of council funding carried out ahead of last year's Spending Review.
DEFRA's head of information rights, Damian Lynch, argued disclosure of the internal assessment risked ‘undermining the integrity of future fiscal processes by revealing the detailed internal cost assessments that inform Spending Review decisions'.
Miller, whose local authority is threatening to delay the introduction of weekly food waste collections, has now appealed to the Information Commissioner.
Wyre Forest is among a growing number of councils that say they cannot afford to introduce weekly food waste collections from this spring, as required by law.
Miller dismissed DEFRA's stance as the Spending Review was ‘long behind us'.
Wyre Forest has estimated that weekly collections will cost more than £1m per year, with senior councillors due to decide next week whether to delay their introduction.
Last month, in a letter to local government secretary Steve Reed, Melton BC leader Pip Allnatt wrote: ‘If food waste collections were rolled out now, the council's un-ringfenced reserves would be exhausted during 2028-29.'
Fylde Council is already delaying collections until the autumn, Worcester City Council has told DEFRA it will not be able to implement food waste collections before April 2027, Melton intends to implement them from April 2028, while Wychavon DC said its service was being held back until 2028 to allow for a ‘smoother and more cost-effective rollout of the service'.
Councillors in Shropshire heard last week that weekly collections posed a ‘significant financial risk'.
Read Ian Miller on his crusade for transparency over food waste burdens here
