Dorset Waste Partnership to cut recycling credit scheme

The partnership provides waste, recycling and street cleaning services to seven Dorset councils

A Dorset waste service is to stop recycling credit it pays to local groups and charities to save money.

Under the scheme, organisations which collect recyclable materials such as newspapers, cans and glass are given about £56 per tonne.

Dorset Waste Partnership (DWP) pays about £50,000 each year to 45 local charities, churches and sports clubs through the scheme.

The partnership said it planned to stop the payments in December.

Anthony Alford, chairman of the DWP, said: "With the need for all councils to find necessary savings in the face of reductions in funding and rising costs, we need to make some difficult choices.

"We have listened to the groups' concerns and sympathise that they, too, face a challenging time."

'Gobsmacked'

Crossways Scout Group said it had no idea how it would "plug the hole" in its income. The group gets about £2,500 annually from the scheme.

Group leader Andrew Brewer said: "We are gobsmacked; to snatch it away at two months' notice is unbelievable.

"We are beside ourselves, for some of the smaller groups this could be curtains."

The DWP, which provides waste, recycling and street cleaning services to seven councils, has targets to drive down costs by £2m a year by 2018/19.

It overspent by £2.72m in 2014/15 and is predicted to exceed its budget by £686,000 in 2015/16, down from previous estimates of £911,000.