Councillor Bill Boulter spoke to this agenda item.
Key
points to note are as follows:
The
Residents attention was drawn to the circulated Refuse and
Recycling consultation forms.
The
County Council are responsible for disposing of waste, and the
borough / district council are responsible for collecting it. The
County Council has the final say on what Districts do with it and
where it goes. Oadby & Wigston currently take all recycling
back to our depot for sorting ready to sell on the open market:
this brings in £200,000/£250,000 per year. On top of
that the County Council pay districts for every ton of waste that
is diverted from landfill: this is because the County has to pay
for waste going to landfill at a current rate of £84 per ton.
These recycling credits are worth about £170,000 per year to
Oadby & Wigston. We used to get a further £80,000 for
recycling garden waste this was cut by County Hall last year. The
County Council is to set up a new recycling centre somewhere in the
county, and all districts will be told to take their refuse and
recycling to that. Future profits from the sale of recyclables will
now go to the County Council. This decision by the Conservatives
takes almost £500,000 out of Oadby & Wigston’ s
£6,000,000 budget and will make our current refuse and
recycling operation untenable.
- By
2020 there will be no Government grant coming to this
Authority.
- The
budget will need to be cut by £700k by 2020.
- The
budget cut is set at £700,000 this year; to continue with
refuse and recycling change means finding a saving of
£700,000. There will be cuts to frontline
services.
- The
consultation paper has been circulated to all households in the
Borough via Letterbox magazine. A postcode must be included on the
consultation form to be valid. A further consultation will follow
in the summer.
- The
vehicle fleet will also need to be replaced. This Borough has a 46%
recycling rate and placing all recyclables in one container as some
authorities are considering would not give good value, because of
contamination.
- Residents are requested to guide the Council on this decision
making process. This may lead to Oadby Depot closing.
- Recycling maybe contracted out of the County.
- Residents were requested to complete the form and give it to
Samuel Ball tonight or send the form off to Customer Services at
Bell Street.
- A
Resident questioned what the cost would be if black wheelie bins
were introduced. As yet this cost is not known.
- Residents with large gardens were assured they would not be
penalised as this is an authority for collecting not disposing of
waste.
- A
Resident wanted to know why County Council were allowed to tell
this Borough how to collect and deal with the disposal of .This was
because the County Council is the authority with responsibility for
this work. They issue the licence for all Borough Councils to
collect and dispose of recyclables and waste. County Council
basically wants to keep the money that comes from the waste.
Borough and District Councils will have to take recycling to sites
that the County Council dictates.
- A
Resident noted that on the civic amenity site has reduced hours the
Borough will get more fly tipping and it will cost more to clean it
up. Councillor Boulter noted the Borough pays out for fly tipping.
A week on Tuesday a report is to be received by the Council on fly
tipping.
The
County does not charge for domestic waste but do for commercial
waste being received at a tip.