There may be others who feel the same way as Carl - everyone is entitled to an opinion.
I hope it wasn't just politics which led to this decision - I would prefer to think it was common sense and Councillors actually listening to large numbers of protesters.
How can anyone, however pro-environment they are, welcome a 50% reduction in general waste collection (when that still contains organic materials)? The majority of us wish to recycle - use Defra grants to purchase facilities to enable us to do so, but there is no necessity to force people into recycling by reducing collection frequency (and therefore bin capacity). People who don't wish to recycle will just contaminate their recyling bins leading to whole loads being rejected at MRFs.
If Defra do demand return of monies I would be surprised - after all the people of Southampton now have good kerbside recycling facilities so surely that money has been well-spent.