Rubbish - a £2m headache

That's the estimated cost of supplying wheelie bins to 40,000 homes as Rother council is pressured by government into meeting waste recycling targets.

And that's only one aspect of the eventual cost.

Chief executive Derek Stevens had led a delegation which put Rother's case to government officers.

He told Monday's cabinet he had been "aghast " at the intransigence of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

The meeting heard the council's financial reserves could be wiped out by the cost of meeting recycling targets.

Council leader Graham Gubby called the prospect "frightening."

But Rother, which for the second year running came within an ace of being capped, has been told that it can expect no cash help and will be expected to keep within future capping limits.

Waste management was the main item in a meeting lasting over four hours.

Cabinet members had a 23-page report setting out tough options including introduction of alternate weekly collections with waste collected one week and recyclable material the next.

Lengthy debate centred not only on the health risks and practicalities of this but on whether it would be better to operate the service "in-house" rather than employ contractors.

The new system must be introduced in two years.

Director of services Tony Leonard warned that the authority would have to act quickly to bring in expertise, build up management and working teams, buy specialist built-to-order refuse freighters and arrange purchasing contracts for the recyclable materials if it opted for an in-house bid.

It could be done. But it would be a tight deadline.

A 21-point recommendation to Monday's full council meeting will include both supporting the principle of submitting in-house bids and going to alternative weekly collections.

Preparing the public for the changes through a marketing and publicity programme and employing temporary staff to see in the scheme could cost 650,000 over three years.

The report to members came from a waste management group set up by Rother to examine the options.

Cllr Gubby warned colleagues that the loss caused by the need to dip into Rother's capital reserves could cost 4.3 per cent of Council Tax when the prospect was a continuing five per cent capping limit.

"It is going to cost an incredible amount of money..."

Reporting on the meeting with government officers, the chief executive said: "At the end of the day there was very little that they could offer.

"The intransigence of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister left one rather aghast."

Cllr Bill Clements calculated that the cost of the wheelie bins would wipe out 20 per cent of Rother's reserves.

He said: "We must get it across to the public that it is going to be a very expensive business - and we don't have a lot of options."

The recommendation to council includes a clause that "the contractor will be required to continue a weekly service where AWC (alternative weekly collection) cannot be achieved for physical or operational reasons."

But this still left councillors deeply concerned, particular about the effect on flat-dwellers and a rise in fly-tipping.

Cllr Stuart Earl said that already non-domestic waste was being put out on shopping streets but those who did it were never seen or caught.

What about flats blocks with a rubbish shute system? "We are surely not going to leave it a fortnight..."

Cllr Clements said his dustbin was regularly filled at night - presumably by another flat-dweller.

The case for submitting an in-house bid was put by Cllr Brian Kentfield.

He argued that the private industry was now down to a few big organisations. Monday's council meeting will be asked to agree to kerbside collection but to include provision for "assistance from the contractor where disability / infirmity can be proved..."

Costings will not be possible until Rother has decided what formula to adopt.

But the leader warned the cabinet: "We are talking about MILLIONS. You are talking about probably ALL our reserves being taken up.

"It is frightening..."