‘Hares set running by Tories’ over future of Arun’s weekly bin collections

The district is one of only two areas in West Sussex where general household waste bins are emptied every week, with everywhere else operating fortnightly collections.

Mid Sussex is set to start a pilot of weekly food waste collections, the first in the county, but the 3,000 households taking part will see their general collections reduced to once every three weeks.

Last month Lib Dem James Walsh, leader of Arun Disrict Council, confirmed that West Sussex County Council was also looking to trial food waste collections in Arun off the back of work in Mid Sussex.

At full council last week, David Edwards (Con, Felpham East) asked for assurances from Dr Walsh that Arun would retain its weekly household waste collection.

He said: “Despite huge support from residents of Arun to keep the weekly collection I wonder if the leader has the appetite to opt for a food trial and then to implement two or three-weekly household waste collections for the Arun district.”

Meanwhile Grant Roberts (Con, Arundel and Walberton) highlighted the 85 per cent satisfaction with waste collection in the Arun residents survey for 2019.

He asked: “What will happen to that when you go to your three weekly collection for some rubbish?”

In response, Dr Walsh said: “Several hares have been set running. The food waste trial is exactly that. It’s a trial. We have got people second guessing what the outcome will be before we have got there from the Tory side telling us that we are going to move to this collection, that collection. We are not. We are going to conduct a trial with the county council as they are doing in Mid Sussex, evaluate it and then decide on what we do.

“All driven by central Government.”

The current household recycling target for local authorities is 50%, but Arun’s figure for the second quarter of 2019/20 was 46.15 per cent.

Previously the Government has indicated it would make food waste collections mandatory in the near future.

In the meantime, the West Sussex Waste Partnership has been running an awareness campaign to help residents reduce the amount of food they throw away.

Analysis suggests that 70 per cent of food waste is avoidable and the partnership’s strategy is to encourage people to try and prevent it from being wasted in the first place.

For advice on reducing food waste visit the partnership’s website.