Fridge mountain nears 1m

The burgeoning fridge mountain created by a government bungle has almost hit the million mark.

Around 900,000 disused fridges and freezers have piled up in local authority dumps while they await destruction, said Michael Meacher, the Environment Minister in charge of the fiasco.

But tens of thousands more are scarring the countryside in unofficial dumps.

The mess, likely to end up costing taxpayers £40million, was caused when Whitehall officials misunderstood and signed up to new Brussels regulations on environmentally-friendly disposal when local authorities did not have the equipment needed to comply with them.