NEIGHBOURHOOD SERVICES BUDGET LOOKS TO MAKE SERVICE LEANER, GREENER AND MORE RESPONSIVE

12.00.00am GMT Tue 19th Jan 2010

City of York Council's Neighbourhood Services Directorate is looking to make itself leaner, greener and more efficient in new budget proposals published today.

The proposals for the 2010/11 budget are set to go before Liberal Democrat Executive Member for Neighbourhoods, Councillor Ann Reid next week.

The proposals will see savings made by improving the efficiency of the departments vehicles. Every new large vehicle will have to meet top environmental standards and procurement contracts will be reviewed to drive down costs.

Energy efficiency measures at the Eco Depot have also resulted in savings of £40,000 on energy bills.

The proposals also include funding to help residents make changes to reduce their waste and improve recycling rates. The kerbside recycling rollout would benefit from an extra £130,000, while waste minimisation programmes would see funding maintained at £50,000.

Councillor Reid said, "Many of the savings contained in the budget proposals have arisen through the rationalisation of street level services within Neighbourhood Services over the last year. These proposals will see the department make more efficient use of its resources and at the same time improve the service we provide to residents."

"These are in addition to the savings identified in the More for York project which aims to help the council operate more efficiently."

Councillor Reid said increases in Landfill Tax were preventing spending being increased elsewhere. She said, "Landfill Tax increases again in April by £8 per tonne, this means that despite reducing the amount of waste we send to landfill we have still been forced to budget for an increase of £388,000 in tax payments."

Councillor Reid said the increase in Landfill Tax could have been even higher but she was confident that York residents would continue to respond to the need to cut the waste they produce, helping to cut the increase by £200,000."

Councillor Reid said the figures showed that the Landfill Tax system was flawed. She said, "Last year we sent 7% less waste to landfill yet paid £225,000 more than the year before. The increases in landfill tax mean that we are paying more despite our good record on cutting down waste and increasing recycling."

"If the government were serious about encouraging recycling they would reward high performing councils by exempting them from the Landfill Tax increase."

"The money we are paying to the government could be used to help speed up the rollout of kerbside recycling which would help to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill even further."

The budget proposals will be considered by Councillor Reid at an Executive Member Decision Session on 26th January.

The Executive will then approve its final budget proposals at a meeting on 16th February before the proposals go to Full Council on 25th February.