Shock new figures have shown that Tory waste proposals on South Gloucestershire would have cost taxpayers MORE money – whilst inconveniencing residents.

In 2013, Cllr James Hunt, the then head Tory on waste, told the press he could “save millions” by collecting bins as late as 10 o’clock at night. But council officers have assessed the plan, and worked out it would actually COST over £50,000 more than making no change at all – and the council would still have a £1.2m hole in the waste budget.

Under the Tories’ cash-wasting plan, residents would have had the sounds of waste collection starting at 6am, and not finishing until 10pm, Monday to Friday. The extra maintenance, supervisory, and running costs would have added massive costs – more than cancelling out any possible savings. The service would also decline in quality, as collecting in the dark would mean more missed bins, and risks to binmen.

Liberal Democrat waste spokesman Claire Young said: “When this proposal came forward, we were sceptical. Lawyers told us that voting for it without knowing the figures would be unlawful. Now we’ve seen them, we know what a colossal mistake it would have been. We can’t afford stupid ideas like this when we’re tackling our budget holes – it would have meant more inconvenience, more noise, more nuisance – and raising council tax to pay for it! Every Tory on the committee voted for this plan, and insisted it would save money – in the committee, in the press, to the public. Now we know just how wrong they were – will they do the right thing and apologise?”

South Gloucestershire’s Communities Committee requested the figures back in September, and they have been released before the committee is next scheduled to discuss waste on June 4th. The number of residents paying for green bin collection has exceeded the targets set to make the necessary savings.
The report also notes “there are also additional implementation costs, unknown at this stage”.

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