South Shropshire food waste collections could be axed

A pioneering food waste collection service across south Shropshire could be scrapped as part of budget cuts by Shropshire Council, it has emerged.

Food waste is currently picked up in collections in Ludlow, Craven Arms and Church Stretton and sent to the biodigester at Coder Road, Ludlow to be processed, producing biogas and fertiliser.

About 5,000 tonnes of food waste a year is collected and green electricity is produced.

Councillor Keith Barrow, leader of Shropshire Council, raised the possibility the collection service could be axed at a meeting of Ludlow and Clee area local joint committee last night.

Ludlow town councillor Viv Parry said Shropshire Council had asked the town council to take over the food waste collection and pay £40,000 for doing it.

She said: "I'm very sorry that you're going to ask us to do that, as I don't know if we can afford it or not.

"If we can't, you're still going to have to collect it in the main rubbish, because people will put it back in the black bins. It's going to go back into landfill and cost you as a council." She added: "It's a lot of money for a very small council."

But Councillor Barrow said: "Veolia have a contract to collect the waste so it's not going to cost a penny more. Food waste is a nice idea but we are looking at the possibility of cutting libraries."

Shropshire Councillor Rosanna Taylor-Smith, who chairs the local joint committee and represents Ludlow North, said: "We won't be paying extra. Food will be going in green waste, for an awful lot of Shropshire residents; this is business as usual. The vehicles already go with our garden waste, I have been advised that it probably won't mean any extra vehicles at all."