A MOVE to three-week waste collections has helped Mid Devon produce less rubbish per household, but cash earned from recycled material is below target.

The amount of rubbish collected per household by Mid Devon District Council so far this financial year – which ends at the start of April – is an average 235kg, well below the average 330kg target the council set itself.

Encouragingly, the district’s recycling rate is 58 per cent, slightly above the target that had been set at 57 per cent.

But the amount of money the council earns from recycled material has only reached £381,000, some distance below the £496,000 target.

This is because fluctuations in market prices for materials such as aluminium mean that the council has been receiving less than expected.

Elsewhere in the council’s environment service, the cleansing inspections team carried out more than 4,000 checks in the district’s three main towns, Tiverton, Crediton and Cullompton, in the final three months of last year.

The team grades the level of litter it finds in areas, with “A” being no litter or refuse, through to “D”, which is heavily littered with significant accumulations. No inspections were rated “D”.

Separately, more than 20 interviews were carried out with people about fly-tipping incidents.

The interviews give them an opportunity to account for a particular fly-tipping episode.

Anyone who is unable to provide a reasonable explanation is issued with a fixed penalty notice. In the last three months of last year, three fines were handed out for littering and three for fly-tipping.

Bradley Gerrard

LDRS