There was a swift reaction from Oxford City Council this week at the announcement that changes to the draft Climate Change Bill, published on Monday, allow local authorities to pilot schemes where householders pay a penalty for binning too much rubbish.

Jean Fooks, the city councillor in charge of Oxford's fortnightly waste collection service, this week ruled out a pay-as-you-throw scheme as unfair. It was thought the scheme had been abandoned nationally because it would lose votes for Labour at the local elections. But the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said the proposals were back on.

However, Ms Fooks, executive member for a cleaner city, said Oxford would not be one of the local authorities to try out a pilot scheme, despite the city's bins being equipped with the microchips necessary to allow the scheme to work.

We suspect that we have not heard the last of this idea.