Extra £5.1m spent by Leeds for Covid waste pressures

In a report set to go before the executive board on 15 December, the council outlines particular challenges it has faced in carrying out waste services during the pandemic.

It also forecasts the extra resources needed next year, to address the added pressures Covid-19 has had on the waste workforce.

Budget

The £5.1m in overspend includes an additional £2.23 million needed for the processing and disposal of increased household waste volumes.

Down to people spending more time at home because of the pandemic, the council expects that residual black bin waste will average around 11% more than in a usual year in 2021/22 .

The increased budget was required “mainly” for paying for residual waste which goes to the energy from waste plant – a Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility (RERF) – in Leeds, operated by Veolia.

And, an additional £1.03m is needed for hire and running costs, as more vehicles were required to collect the increasing household waste volumes.

The council noted that it will also required extra help in managing “extra Covid cleaning needs”.

The rest of the overspend was allocated for additional refuse staff to cover for those self-isolating.

Despite these challenges, the report notes that throughout the pandemic, the kerbside collection of black and green bins continued in the city, with only the start of brown bin collections in 2021 delayed by a few weeks.

‘Necessary’

“The increased anticipated costs are necessary as we continue to adapt to face the ongoing challenges faced by Covid-19.”

• Cllr Mohammed Rafique, Leeds city council

Commenting on the report, Councillor Mohammed Rafique, Leeds City Council’s executive member for environment and housing expressed “gratitude” for the hard work of the waste service over the last 20 months.

He continued: “The increased anticipated costs are necessary as we continue to adapt to face the ongoing challenges faced by Covid-19. When the service had its initial budget set for the year, it didn’t include any additional Covid related costs, and so it was crucial that we gave the service the financial support needed to ensure that they could keep working throughout the pandemic.

“For the next financial year, we will be looking to include the anticipated cost of managing and disposing of the extra waste being produced by homes across Leeds in the initial budget, rather than something we report as an overspend during the year.”