Rising Dumfries and Galloway waste scheme costs defended

A new system will cost more than £23m

A council has defended its new waste collection service despite its estimated cost passing £23m.

The local authority in Dumfries and Galloway is introducing the system after it piloted a bin collection scheme which was never rolled out.

It means thousands of containers bought for that scheme will never be used.

The council said a new three-wheelie bin plan with associated other expenditure was necessary to meet waste reduction legislation.

Adam Wilson, who chairs the local authority's finance committee, said it had no choice but to change its current system.

"We have to move to moving all of our waste and diverting it from landfill and we have to move to a kerbside collection system," he said.

"That was legislation that was enacted and that will have a cost for this council as it has had a cost for every single council."

The council said the move was necessary to meet legal requirements

Mr Wilson said the decision to progress with the system which was piloted but never rolled out had been taken by a previous council administration.

However, he said that it would now take time to get the right system in place.

"There is no one quick answer - it is going to be a bit of a hard slog," he said.

"But there is a huge demand from local people here to make sure that we are reusing more, we are recycling more and we are committed to rolling that out.

"We can no longer sustain the operation that we have at the moment."

A report recently revealed that the development of a "zero-waste park" to deal with waste would exceed £13m.

This is on top of more than £8m for new bins and vehicles and more than £2m for "rectification" work at other sites.