Dear Wednesfield North Residents-
The budget is always a very difficult period for the City Council.
All through the year on my social media sites, I have tried to keep you up dated on decisions that we face and actions that the City Council take through out the year.
I have been away on holidays, but have read all your comments on my social media sites. This article is aimed at answering a lot of the local questions you pose.
Local Government Finance is indeed complex. But I would like to inform residents that the Counciltax we collect only accounts for a small proportion of the council’s resources, and our government grant has been cut massively (by over 50% in the last six years) by this Government.
Wolverhampton City Council are not the only Authority to be forced to make this decision on waste collection. In fact we are amongst the last of the Councils to be forced down this particular policy road! This decision has been forced on Wolverhampton by this Governments continued reduction in our City Grant.
Over 76% of councils in the UK have already gone to fortnightly or less frequent domestic waste collections
- Government funding to sustain a weekly service in Wolverhampton has now ceased.
- With regards to the collection of garden waste, this is a non-statutory service, a service that we could offer before the Grant was taken away…
- What Wolverhampton City Council will be offering residents of the City and Wednesfield North residents – is that any household wishing to have a larger brown bin will be given one.
- 40% of English councils already charge or are thinking about charging for the collection of green waste, with annual charges varying between £35 to £60
- The charged for green waste collection service will take place for more months of the year than the existing service
- Only 1/3 of households currently use the green waste service, but it is paid for by every Counciltax payer.I know that the information I give will not be welcome, but the situation is one that is being driven by this Conservative Government, as they continue to look for residents to pay more for Local Services.
- What the City Council intend to do is to implement longer opening hours for the current household waste recycling centres (HWRC) and work will begin on creating a super HWRC with a charitably run re-use centre.
