AS THE COUNCIL looks at ways to save money due to the unprecedented financial crisis, a consultation is being planned into the future of Wokingham’s waste collection.
At a meeting of its ruling executive tonight, the borough council will be asked to vote on changes to the existing service ahead of looking at how the doorstep service will operate in future.
They include reducing the number of blue bags provided to each home from 80 to 54, due to rising inflationary costs or, to save nearly £500,000, axing them altogether.
There are fears that the latter would have an adverse impact on recycling rates, which would also have financial implications for the council as they have a target set by central government.
But keeping the supply at the existing 80 blue bags would add £149,000 to the council’s budgets.
The council is also expected to vote to stop providing free bags to line food waste caddies, instead asking residents to use empty bread bags, line with newspaper or buy caddy liners from supermarkets.
Cllr Ian Shenton, executive member for environment, sport and leisure said: “It costs us – and so taxpayers – a lot more to deal with waste than it does recycling, so people who are putting things like food, plastics and paper into their blue bags are effectively throwing away money – and nobody can afford to do that at the moment.”
But more controversial is a plan that could see weekly collections of rubbish ditched – food waste would remain on a weekly cycle.
Residents are being asked for their views on the plans, which could save £1 million, and increase recycling.
Postcards will be sent to every home inviting residents to take part in the consultation, which will run from Monday, October 10, through to Monday, December 5.
The executive member for environment, sport and leisure, Cllr Ian Shenton, said: “As our residents are hearing, the council is facing immense financial pressures – the cost of living crisis isn’t just hitting our residents, it is hitting the council as well. Inflation and rising energy costs affect our contracts, our buildings, our supplies – really almost all of our services. So, we are having to look at all of them to see where we can make efficiencies.
“We were in the middle of working on a new waste and recycling collections strategy as the financial crisis began, so we are well placed in waste to understand how we can make savings.”
He said Wokingham was one of a “small number” of local authorities who continue to collect rubbish weekly. Neighbouring Reading collects fortnightly, while Bracknell switched to once every three weeks.
“Weekly is expensive and has a negative impact on the environment,” Cllr Shenton said.
“With the financial pressure we are under, we just don’t have the choice to continue with collections exactly as they are.
“In any future collections, we would continue to have weekly food waste collections as that is absolutely necessary, but we will look at the possibilities of having our rubbish and recycling (what we put in the blue and green bags) less frequently, in line with the majority of other councils.”
He continued: “We will be launching a consultation in coming weeks, but it isn’t a vote on whether we will keep weekly rubbish and recycling collections or not. It will explain to residents the costs of what we do now and the ways in which we could make significant savings and improve our recycling rate at the same time. It will ask residents of their views and ask them if there is anything they think we haven’t thought of.
“It’s important that we hear from as many residents as possible – both those in favour of the changes and those against. It doesn’t mean we won’t have to make changes – but we need to understand the impact of any potential changes to help us make the best decisions for us as a borough.”
The Conservatives leader, Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, was against the removal of caddy bags.
At a meeting of Wokingham Borough Council last Thursday evening, she said: “The Conservative Group believe that the removal of free Caddy liners is likely to damage the level of food recycling in the Borough, this is when food recycling has a target to increase.”
But Cllr Shenton said: “These changes make perfect sense because they are in line with the previously set budget and in line with our commitment to protect the environment. The financial pressures on us are immense and we must find ways to re-work our services to ensure we continue to protect our most vulnerable residents.
“Most people and most families should be able to make do with one blue bag of rubbish per week – use the food waste recycling collections, use the green waste collections, and recycle all your plastics, paper and card and tins. This is an easy saving for us to make.
“However, that won’t be enough. We just aren’t going to be able to continue with our waste and recycling collections as they are now – we are one of the few areas in the country that still collect everything every week. If we alternate rubbish one week and recycling the next, for example, while keeping food waste collections weekly, we will save around £1 million per year.
“This money would then be available to spend on our elderly, our children, our most in need. I think it’s the right thing for us to do, but we want to hear from residents about how it would impact them.
“We want to hear from as many residents as possible.”
