The Assembly Government must share responsibility for cutting waste and increasing recycling, Shadow Environment Minister Angela Burns AM has claimed.
Speaking in an Assembly debate, the Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire AM said ministers should not impose targets on councils, businesses and individuals without giving them the resources to achieve them.
Commenting on the Assembly Government’s proposed Waste Measure, Mrs Burns said:
“My concern with some of the wording of the proposed Measure is the implication that the challenge of achieving this aspirational and necessary target will merely be handed down to local authorities and individuals, and that fines and penalties will be imposed as a stick to force people to comply.
“The Assembly Government must lead and lead by example. I do not think we can simply use the stick to force compliance.
“We need to ensure that funding follows the challenges, so that the Welsh Assembly Government and local authorities can fund initiatives such as those to implement and extend kerbside recycling.
“We support the government on the restrictions on waste going to landfill. However everything is reliant on ensuring that we have easily accessible alternatives so that we do not present people with an impossible task and too little funds to achieve it.
“You cannot expect any person or body to achieve these targets, whether it is a local authority, a national park, an individual or an arm of the Welsh Assembly Government, unless those other choices are in place.”
