"Fridge Mountains" - Another Stealth Tax?

You might be hoping that the Council Tax increase this year can be kept low - we all do.  However, I would like to draw to your attention one of the  many pressures on the Local Authority by Central Government.

In 1998/99 the UK agreed to a EU Directive which would require CFCs from fridges to be recycled.  In 2000 they realised that this didn't just apply to the liquid coolant but also to the foam insulation!  On 1st January these regs came into force.

We don't have any plant anywhere in the UK to strip out this foam, the nearest is in Holland.  Shops here sell 3,000,000 (three million) new domestic fridges per year - most of them replacements and it is estimated that the country now faces a bill of £200 million to collect, store and transport the fridges that will be disposed of.  Who will pay for this? Aha!

Apparently we could have had a delay in this implementation, but Michael Meacher refused to ask the EU for it, in case it "set a precent".   Instead we will have fridges dumped all over our countryside, ironically leaking the very gas this directive was designed to protect us all from.

Michael Meacher also said "We are ... taking the realistic view that if extra duties are imposed (on Local Authorities) they should be reasonably funded.  That is the Government's policy."   He specifically said about fridges, " where more money will be required beyond then (the end of the financial year),  as it certainly will, we are carefully considering what the sum should be, for what period and what we expect local authorities to do."

This is just another stealth tax - not a tax imposed by Central Government, but a pressure on Local Authorities so we have to raise our Council Tax to cover expenditure we would reasonably expect Central Government to help us with.  Don't shoot the messengers!  (Please!)

7th February 2002