§ Mr. BeithTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will give guidance to local authorities on the extent to which civic 7W amenity sites are made available in rural areas, and on the maximum travel distance required to convey material to such sites. [39655]
§ Angela EagleNo. Under the Environment Protection Act 1990, each Waste Disposal Authority has a duty to arrange for
places to be provided at which persons resident in its area may deposit their household wasteand to ensure that these civic amenity sites are "reasonably accessible". The Act does not stipulate what is reasonable and my Department has no power to intervene. We have no plans to issue guidance. However, as far as recycling facilities are concerned, we do have a national target of ensuring that 80% of households have easily accessible facilities by 2000 and the Environment Agency has been asked to consider the possibility of licensing unmanned civic amenity sites where appropriate with a view to assisting their provision in rural areas.