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Food recycling targets 'difficult', says council

BBC Two black plastic food caddies - about knee high - sit on a pavement in a Newcastle suburb. A council waste worker clad in a high-vis t-shirt and shorts strolls towards them in the background alongside a white waste removal van with headlights shining forward in the morning sun. BBC
Northumberland County Council said it needed an extra £1.6m in addition to current government funding

Councillors in Northumberland have warned it will be "really difficult" to roll out mandatory food waste collection services due to a lack of funding.

Local authorities will be required to provide food waste collection from April 2026 under rules set out by the previous government.

Recognising the additional costs, the government has committed to offering councils extra funding, but Northumberland County Council said the money was not enough.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the government intended to "introduce a streamlined approach to recycling" and would provide details about further funding as soon as possible.

The council claims the funding formula fails to properly account for higher costs incurred by rural areas, which need to buy more disposal vans to cover sparsely populated countryside.

The Conservative leader of Northumberland County Council, Glen Sanderson, said the authority was able to deliver food waste collections, but only if given enough money.

Glen Sanderson sits at his desk, wearing a blue and white striped shirt with a green and navy blue tie. A vinyl print of Hadrian's Wall covers the wall behind him while on the desk sits a computer and a mug holding various pens.
Councillor Glen Sanderson said the scheme would be "difficult" to rollout

He told BBC Politics North: "In a place like Northumberland, it is really difficult.

"We want to make sure everybody that wants to recycle their food waste can do so, even if they live in an isolated farmhouse in the Cheviots.

"The government hasn't come up with the money yet, so we are quite worried because we've given them the evidence, shown them it can work, we've said what it will cost, and we've hit a potential logjam."

'£1.6m short'

Northumberland was allocated enough money to buy at least 15 new vehicles, but the man in charge of the council's environment portfolio said it did not cover the expected costs.

Councillor Colin Horncastle said: "The funding that they have come up with is just over £2.9m. Our modelling shows we would need £4.5m, so we are £1.6m short.

"It's going to be a complicated service for Northumberland. In rural areas, you will be going miles to pick up very small amounts of waste.

"That is why we need more vehicles than was anticipated by central government."

The council is appealing the matter to government, BBC News understands.

Lola McEvoy is pictured mid sentence sat on the BBC Politics North red sofa with the studio's teal-coloured cityscape graphical backdrop behind her.
Lola McEvoy said the younger generation were excited about recycling

Darlington's Labour MP Lola McEvoy promised answers in the new year.

"When the spending review is out in the spring we'll be talking about which things we can prioritise with the limited funds that we have.

"What's interesting about the food composting is that it comes up so much from children - the recycling agenda is one of the most popular things they want to talk about."

BBC Politics North airs at 10:00 GMT on Sundays on BBC One in the North East & Cumbria. Recent episodes are available now on the BBC iPlayer.

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