These are enormous amounts of money that are going to be coming out of council taxpayers' pockets and it's just not fair

Kay Twitchen

It bans the dumping of fridges and freezers on landfill sites with a resulting increase in the number of units being fly-tipped on fields and wasteland.

The move is aimed at preventing leakage of the ozone destroying gases used in refrigeration units.

Mr Meacher told the BBC that the government had already given �6m until the end of the financial year to help councils deal with storage.

Work was now in progress to get the new disposal technology in place.

But Mr Meacher rejected reports that the EU rule had caused a crisis.

"The European Commission's proposal for an EC regulation was published in August 1998," he told Radio 4's PM programme.

Mr Meacher said the government had been badly let down

"It did not make the recovery of ozone depleting substances from refrigerators, mandatory.

"Also, it had never been intended that CFCs (chloroflurocarbons) and hydroflurocarbons (HCFCs) should be recovered from the foam unless practicable."

Mr Meacher went on to detail a series of occasions when EU officials either failed to raise the issue at a series of meetings or when a discussion was had no conclusion was reached.

The government had sought confirmation that the amended article did not affect the foam and no answer was forthcoming for 18 months.

"They did not give that answer until July 2001," he said.

"We feel badly let down by the Commission and since then we have put in place all the measures that are necessary to try to deal with this issue, given the lateness of the day in which we were informed, that the regulation not only applied to the coolant gas, but also the foam.

"That was not expected and we have acted on it as fast as we can in the light of that rather surprising decision of the Commission."

Mr Meacher said that most of the European member states, including the UK, lacked the technology to remove the coolant gases from the foam.

Only Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden currently had that technology he said.

"We have ever since the summer of last year been seeking to get installers to put in the plant to provide the technology which can decommission these fridges.

"We believe the first of those may be operating possibly this month, certainly by the spring."

More cash needed?

The government had provided �6m which it believed was enough to cope with transporting and storing old fridges until the end of the financial year.

"And we are urgently examining what further finance may be necessary for local authorities later in the year.

"We will be making an announcement on that very shortly."

But the chairman of the Local Government Association's waste and environmental management executive, Kay Twitchen, said that the government should have seen the problem coming.

"These are enormous amounts of money that are going to be coming out of council taxpayers' pockets and it's just not fair."