Wokingham Borough Council is set to approve spending almost £390,000 it saved on a tender for wheelie bins on additional green recycling bags and kitchen caddies, and to form a contingency for any unexpected costs.
In March 2023, the Liberal Democrat-controlled council’s ruling executive approved the implementation of future changes to waste collections that will come into force later this year.
Some £1.96 million in funding was previously approved for the purchase and distribution of the wheeled bins.
It held a tender process in September 2023, and the winning tender for the supply and distribution of the wheelie bins was significantly under the approved budget by nearly £390,000.
At an individual members’ decision meeting next week, Cllr Ian Shenton, the executive member for environment, sport and leisure will make the decision.
The report for the meeting noted: “Although there are currently significant stocks of containers, including green recycling bags, at the depot, it is possible that these could be fully used when the waste changes scheme goes live in August 2024.
“Therefore, there could be a shortage of recycling bags which would significantly impact on the project, and generate resident complaints.
“In terms of kitchen caddies, it is possible that more will be required.
“Although there is an annual budget within the general waste accounts to cover caddy resupply, this could be spent and therefore impact on the project.”
Andy Croy, leader of the Labour group on Wokingham Borough Council, said: “While it is disappointing that the requirement for additional green bags, beyond existing stocks, was not mentioned or accounted for in the original discussions, it is right that the Council ensures there are sufficient green bags and food waste caddies to allow the transition to the new waste scheme to take place smoothly.
“It seems to me that this is just tweaking the planned spending – substituting one form of capital spending for another, but within the same project, so there is no impact on the overall projected costs or savings.
“I would be far more concerned if there were inadequate stocks or if the project costs had gone up.
“Many residents make a great deal of effort to recycle as much as they can.
“It is important to support these residents to continue in their recycling while striving to ensure that residents who recycle less can recycle more.”
Cllr Pauline Jorgensen, leader of the Conservative Group, added: “When the Liberal Democrat administration first proposed reducing the household waste collection and recycling services, we warned they would need more money for green bags and caddies. “They didn’t listen – and now they’ve found they didn’t budget enough.
“It’s only because they couldn’t get another cost estimate right, in this case for the wheelie bin contract, that there’s money available.
“This could have been used to prevent more cuts to services or hikes in charges.
“But thanks to Lib Dem incompetence, it has to be used to plug the gap they created.”
