According to the council, a reduction in funding from central government, alongside rising inflation and increased demand for services has led to financial challenges which have put the unitary authority under increasing financial strain.
Across all of its services the council is hoping to cut £100 million from its budget by 2020.
As a result the authority is consulting on areas where savings can be made – including plans for changes to its HWRC service. The nine HWRCs in the district are operated by HW Martin.
Four options have been presented in the consultation, which was launched last month, on potential savings, ranging from site closures and reduced opening hours to the introduction of charges or generating income by opening sites to Trade Waste.
Table 1 summarises all four options.
Preferred option
The council has indicated a preferred option, namely to maintain a wide geographical coverage but closing the Arclid HMRC – the smallest and ‘least efficient’ of its four sites – from 1 April 2017, maintaining service through the surrounding sites at Middlewich, Congleton and Alsager.
Income would be generated by introducing a charge for the deposit of non-household waste and by opening sites to Trade Waste from small construction companies by 2018-19, the council claims. Further savings would be made by reducing opening times but keeping all sites open seven days a week. This option would generate estimated savings of £726,000 per year, it is anticipated.
The alternative to the HWRC service contributing towards the overall savings is that other services would have to make extra savings on top of ones they already may need to make, the council claims.
Residents of the North West borough have been asked to provide views on the proposals by 10 January 2017 – with potential changes to services to be rolled out in the spring.
In recent months, other local authorities have considered changes to their HWRC service amidst financial pressures, including Derbyshire (see letsrecycle.com story) and Hampshire (see letsrecycle.com story).
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