The North London Waste Authority found itself 4.8 million – around 10% – under budget last year, marking the second year in succession that the Authority has found itself in credit. It has also been revealed that the NLWA already has 22 million in the bank.
” It is wrong that taxpayers in this borough will have to pay the price for an unnecessarily lavish NLWA budget and for the failure of some councils to adopt environmentally friendly policies “
– Cllr Brian Coleman, Barnet
This prompted Tory-controlled Barnet and fellow Tory-controlled NLWA member Enfield to suggest an increase to the budget for the next financial year of only 0.06%.
But this recommendation was discarded by the other five members – Hackney, Waltham Forest, Camden, Haringey and Islington – who voted for an increase of 9%.
Barnet council will now have to pay 8,951,547 towards the budget next year. Barnet council has claimed that this is 1.13 million more than is necessary. The council also indicated that it was likely some of this would again be carried over to the next year.
Full tonnage
Barnet and Enfield also proposed at the annual NLWA budget meeting to switch to a full tonnage based levy for waste disposal – a move which was also vetoed.
Under this system the more successful a council is at minimising rubbish and encouraging recycling and composting, the less it delivers for disposal and the less it has to pay. Under the current regime the NLWA charges each local authority according to the total number of households paying council tax.
Barnet has said that it is annoyed because this means that as the largest council with 131,000 households Barnet will be paying more than 4 million more than Hackney and Waltham Forest.
Councillor Brian Coleman, one of two Barnet representatives on the NLWA, said: “Barnet has one of the country's best recycling schemes and is committed to reducing waste.
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Cllr Coleman went on: “It is wrong that taxpayers in this borough will have to pay the price for an unnecessarily lavish NLWA budget and for the failure of some councils to adopt environmentally friendly policies.
“Once again sensible proposals have been blocked and we are paying more to the waste authority than smaller boroughs that dump or burn more of their rubbish,” Cllr Coleman added.
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