Communities secretary Eric Pickles has criticised Sheffield city council over its decision not to apply for the 250 million fund available for local authorities to reinstate weekly waste collections.
Last month, the council opted to move from a weekly to a bi-weekly collection system, in a bid to cut around 12 million from its budget over a five-year period. Opposition councillors called for the local authority to apply to the weekly collection fund, a move that was rejected by thecity council.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, MP for Sheffield Hallam, then became involved in the dispute, writing to Mr Pickles to find out if the city council would be eligible for funding under the scheme.
Proper service
In his response to the deputy prime minister, Mr Pickles rebuked the city councils decision not to apply for funding. He said: Decisions on how to configure waste collections are ultimately a matter for local discretion. However, I believe Sheffield residents deserve a proper service in return for the 1,478 a year they now pay the city council in council tax. This is why the coalition government has ditched the last governments policy of cajoling councils into cutting weekly rubbish collections.
It is very disappointing that the ruling administration on the city council has decided to make these cuts without a proper mandate and it intentionally decided to ignore the coalition governments new scheme to support weekly collections. This strikes me as a very partisan move.
Mr Pickles also expressed his view that some councils are able to save money by keeping weekly collections. He added: I believe it is a false economy to cut frontline services councils can save money through new technology, embracing innovation, more joint working and better procurement. Indeed, many councils with fortnightly collections have higher collection costs than those with weekly collections.
I would strongly encourage the city council to review its decision and consider applying for the scheme. Councillors should look at creative ways they can help families go green and provide a high-quality and frequent collection service to local taxpayers.
However, the council still maintains its view that any funding the council would be likely to receive would not cover the total needed for the city to retain a weekly collection service, estimated to be around 2.44 million per year (see letsrecycle.com story).
Budget
And, according to council leader Julie Dore, even if the council were to apply, it is required to set its final budget in March, meaning it would not be possible to delay cutting the service until October, when the distribution of money under the weekly collection fund is likely to be announced.
She said: On the face of it, it seems that there is no where near enough money available in this government fund to commit to protecting the service for five years, but the problem is they will not tell us how much money will be available until October. You can not set budgets on ifs, buts and maybes, we need to know what the governments offer will be for Sheffield before we set our budget in March, we simply can not wait until October.
We have put our cards on the table and are giving the government one final chance to confirm that they will fund this service.
Councils have until March 16 to submit an expression of interest in obtaining funding, with St Albans city and district council and Bath and North East Somerset councils already announcing their intention to apply (see letsrecycle.com story).
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