Council leader defends axing weekly bin collections (From The Northern Echo)

Council leader defends axing weekly bin collections

8:30am Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Bishop Auckland News By Mark Tallentire

SCRAPPED: Council leader Simon Henig has defended axing weekly bin collections

A COUNCIL leader has defended axing weekly bin collections, predicting they are about to disappear nationwide.

Durham County Council leader Simon Henig said the twin-bin system of fortnightly collections promised huge financial savings, and said: “My prediction is every council will be running a similar system in the next few years.”

Speaking as his authority delivered its first twin bins to Chester-le-Street yesterday, Councillor Henig said promises of Government cash to save weekly collections had so far come to nothing and, while any proposals would be considered, he would be very surprised if the trend to fortnightly collections was reversed.

His council, which faces losing £190m from its annual spending power between 2010 and 2017, hopes the twin-bin system will save between £9m and £12m over the next five years.

Coun Henig said: “We’ve got to find enormous, unprecedented levels of savings of 40 per cent. We’ve got to look at all ways of saving money.”

New grey recycling bins will be delivered across the Chester-le-Street area in the coming days; with Teesdale, Wear Valley and Sedgefield receiving theirs in March and April; and Durham City and Easington in April and May.

The system, which involves existing rubbish and new recycling bins being emptied on alternate weeks, will begin in these areas in April, May and mid-June respectively.

Collection days may change, as binmen move to a four-day week. About 60 per cent of County Durham’s household rubbish is buried and landfill tax increases are expected to cost the authority an extra £1m every year.

Studies from Derwentside, which has had a twin-bin system since 2006, suggest the system increases recycling.

Coun Henig said people would be delighted to see the end of green bags, currently used for paper and plastics, and he had received no complaints from people living in the Derwentside area about the new set-up, except during extreme weather.

He also defended giving the £4.2m contract to make and distribute the 225,000 bins to Environmental Systems Expertise (ESE), which is making them in France, despite a UK firm bidding £250,000 cheaper, saying almost all bin manufacturers were international companies and ESE supplied many English councils.

For more information on the new system, visit durham.gov.uk/bins or call 0300-0261000.

‘Cut managerial fat, not services’

A TORY leader has challenged a council to cut managerial fat – not neighbourhood wardens and library opening hours.

Durham County Council’s ruling Labour group yesterday revealed proposals to axe 20 warden posts and increase service charges in an attempt to cut £26.6m from the authority’s 2012-13 budget.

Library opening hours are also to be slashed to 36 per week at town centre branches and 20 per week at community libraries.

But Conservative leader Richard Bell said: “We believe the council should be trimming managerial fat rather than cutting services like library opening hours and neighbourhood wardens. With about 250 managers being paid more than £50,000 a year and more tiers than a society wedding cake, there’s still plenty to go at.”

Councillor Bell also called on the council to declare how many full-time union staff were paid from the public purse and the cost of annual pay increments.

The Tories also want a flexible development fund established, to respond to economic opportunities. The Liberal Democrats are expected to unveil their alternative budget proposals on Monday.

Councillor Simon Henig, the council’s Labour leader, said if the libraries budget was to be cut, the only alternative to reducing opening hours was closing branches.

Labour’s budgetary and library proposals are to be discussed by the council’s cabinet on Wednesday, before the budget is agreed at a full council meeting on February 22.

Council finance chiefs expect to lose £190m from their annual spending power between 2010 and 2017 – about 40 per cent.