Waste services set to be hit by council cuts

The comments come in the wake of a survey of 93 councils published today (March 1) by the BBC, in which environmental services emerged as one of the top five provisions “vulnerable” to cuts as local authorities seek increased savings in forthcoming years.

In addition, the survey suggested that spending on environmental services could fall by as much as 30% as councils look to make savings across the board as the local authority money received from central government looks set to be reduced from 2010/11 onwards.

The comments come three months after the publication of the government's Pre-Budget report, which said that councils would be expected to reduce their waste collection and disposal costs to help deliver £550 million in council spending cuts by 2012/13 (see letsrecycle.com story) .

In response to tighter budgets, local authorities have already taken steps to improve the performance of services through joint working arrangements, optimisation of collection rounds and re-negotiating contracts in order to increase savings.

Commenting on the proposed budget cuts, Clive Harris, waste policy advisor at the Local Government Association (LGA), said that it would be a matter of councils assessing what their own priorities were but claimed frontline services such as waste collections would be among those councils would loathe to cut.

“I think it is worth saying that local authorities will do everything they can to avoid making frontline service cuts. I think it will be up to individual local authorities to set out what they want to do and cutting front line services is going to be the last thing anyone wants to do,” he said.

Mr Harris also explained that while waste and recycling was not guaranteed to receive preferential treatment, some councils may look to adopt “innovate practices” such as joint working to ensure that the service is as efficient as possible.

However, the workers' union GMB refuted claims that frontline services would be safeguarded and claimed that the findings of the survey implied a “complete meltdown” for council provisions.

GMB national secretary Brian Strutton said: “There is a myth that councils can cut spending without affecting front line services but that's wrong, it's peddled by those who don't want to admit what they are really doing.”

Announcement of the survey comes as the waste advisory body Waste Improvement Network published guidance for local authorities aimed squarely at helping to achieve savings on waste and recycling services.

Cuts

Some councils which have a good performance with regards to recycling appear ready to see funding moved to other areas that local authorities need to improve on.

This feeling was first expressed by East Lindsey district council in October 2009, when it was claimed ‘value-for-money' was now key. The Lincolnshire council had been the best performing council for recycling in 2007/08 but explained that recycling was no longer a top priority in budgetary terms as it looked to make savings (see letsrecycle.com story).

Similarly, City of Lincoln council said that environmental services, despite its “good reputation”, would be among the areas no longer viewed as a priority as it looked to save £2.5 million on its annual budget.

Councillor Darren Grice, leader of the City of Lincoln council, said: “We're focussing on crime and disorder, the health of the city, having strong leadership and good customer service and listening to our communities. We will, of course, endeavour to maintain high satisfaction levels with the council's environmental services.”

In Nottinghamshire, the county council has also identified a raft potential of potential savings in its waste and recycling programmes alone.

The cuts would see the closure of three household waste and recycling centres, which the council branded as “poorly utilised”, in order to save £560,000 and the removal of £360,000 worth of incentives paid to the district councils to send dry recyclables to the materials recycling facility at Mansfield.

Furthermore, the county council said it would increase the levy placed on district councils to dispose of trade waste in a bid to generate £200,000. This would be coupled £135,000 in savings created from the cessation of the free asbestos removal service, reduction of waste awareness promotion campaign and removal administrative support from the waste structure.

Remove

Other councils have suggested that the way forward may require more direct action than simply reordering council priorities, with councils, such as the London borough of Enfield, outlining the potential for redundancies in waste and recycling in their 2010/11 budget proposals.

The council document said: “The [waste management] division is planning to save £100,000 from 2010/11 onwards through improved co-ordination of services and better contract management. This will include reducing spend on supplies and services and also staffing efficiencies.”

Elsewhere, local authorities have had to assess the services themselves and, in some cases, remove provisions to cut costs. East Cambridgeshire district council last week (February 24) approved plans to remove plastic bottles from its kerbside collection service (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, Pendle borough council has tabled plans to generate additional income by charging for bulk waste collections. The service, which was originally free, will now cost £5 and is earmarked to earn the local authority £52,000 in extra revenue.

However, some councils explained that while they would not be cutting costs from waste and recycling services they would seek to “optimise” elements of the service, such as collection rounds.

For example, Northumberland county council, which faces around £21 million in overall cuts to the council budget, said it would be reviewing collection routes to make sure the most efficient routes are used.

Joint

Steve Read, managing director of the Somerset Waste Partnership (SWP), explained that while some councils are restricting services, joint working meant that the SWP would be possible for the partnership to expand its service, with initiatives such as the introduction of plastic and cardboard collections at the kerbside (see letsrecycle.com story) and receiving direct investment in its services from Marks and Spencer (see letsrecycle.com story).

And, he said that through continually scrutinising its work through the joint Somerset Waste Board, it would continue to offer savings on waste and recycling despite Somerset county council facing the possibility of carrying out £40 million worth of budget cuts.

Mr Read said: “One of the advantages of the partnership having a single Board is that the councils look at the big picture. In the medium to long term, expanding recycling is the most cost-effective way of avoiding ever-growing landfill costs through both diversion and waste reduction.”

However, Mr Read did explain that the district councils involved in the partnership have had to look for savings to help fund the introduction of new services, with the main impact being on recycling banks.

He said: “Our recycling banks required investment which has been hard to justify when the same materials are already – or will shortly be – collected – at kerbside. As a result of the servicing and cleansing costs, three of our districts have cut down the number of recycling banks significantly.”

Investment

Despite the need to save money in some parts of the country, some councils said they intended to keep investing heavily in waste and recycling efforts despite budgetary restraints due to the looming impact of Landfill Tax, which continues to rise at a rate of £8 per year.

For example, Telford & Wrekin council identified a need to sink £4.2 million into the expansion of its kerbside recycling collection service and the redevelopment of two household waste and recycling centres in the region.

Outlining the proposal, councillor Andrew Eade, council leader at Telford & Wrekin, said: “Without a major investment in recycling services, costs for waste disposal will continue to rise and at the current rates, this could cost council tax payers an extra £400,000 per year.”

In December, Sheffield city council also approved a major waste budget increase (see letsrecycle.com story).