South Gloucestershire Conservatives tonight (2^nd January) proposed leaving a £750,000 hole in the budget of the Communities Committee Waste Programme.

 

The Council’s waste programme is going out to consultation on the future of garden waste.  And Conservatives wanted to include an option that would have led to cuts in other services.

 

If approved, the Tories’ proposal to halt garden waste collections for three months a year would only have saved £83,000 a year.  Officers had proposed a series of options, which started savings at £810,000 a year – nearly ten times as much.  In the meeting, the Director of Environment & Community Services advised that members should only propose consultation options that met the savings requirement – but the Conservatives made no proposals for how to fill the hole.   

Cllr Claire Young, Liberal Democrat lead member for Communities, later said: “The Conservatives wanted to include an option that would save us nearly no money at all, and not say where they’d fund it from – that’s being dishonest with local residents.  Obviously nobody wants to increase charging, but we need to be honest and open about the decisions we’re making.”

   1 Comment