Councils deserve our gratitude today. The Government wanted a number of councils to run pilots for bin taxes but the Telegraph reports that not a single council made a bid and the scheme has been abandoned for now.
Such a tax would be another burden on council taxpayers already struggling to cope in a recession with Council Tax doubled in the last ten years and rising charges for services like car parking and policing at local events. It would encourage fly-tipping.
The Conservative local government team, under Eric Pickles, did some fine work opposing bin taxes. Thankfully, it sounds like Caroline Spelman is keeping up the pressure:
"Bin taxes are now dead in the water. This is a major snub for Gordon Brown and his Labour Ministers. The bin tax laws should now be repealed and taken off the statute book. These unpopular new taxes would harm the environment by fuelling fly-tipping and backyard burning, and hike tax bills for struggling families."