Following the meeting of Blaby District Council on Tuesday 19th September, the Council are now finalising the consultation which they hope will get as much resident response as possible.
The Council has not yet made a decision to make alterations to the manner in which refuse and recycling is collected. However, as reported, it is something that is currently being considered.
The District Council wishes to consult on, amongst other things, that the current weekly refuse and recycling service will change from its current configuration to one of an alternate weekly basis. This means that one week refuse will be collected and the alternate week the recycling will be collected
Going forward, the Council says it wants to ensure that residents receive a sustainable, quality refuse and recycling service.
In order to do this, the Council need residents to tell them both about their current situation and what might work best for them.
The new scheme proposals are designed to make necessary savings for the Council but also to encourage residents to recycle more.
The history…
In November 2012 Blaby District Council was successful in being awarded
£2M funding from the Department for Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to
carry out weekly refuse and recycling collections from June 2013 for a period
of 5 years.
This funding enabled the Council to purchase 5 new recycling
vehicles, additional recycling bins and allowed £235K per year to underpin the
revenue cost of weekly collections. The final £235K of revenue funding ends
in March 2017/18 financial year.
In September 2016 Leicestershire County Council (LCC) Cabinet agreed to
use their statutory powers of direction to procure capacity for all
Leicestershire Waste Collection Authorities and direct them to use it when
their current arrangements end.
Blaby District Council’s current arrangement for processing dry recycling is with Casepak and this ends on 31st May 2018.
Once LCC use their powers of direction, they no longer have to pay Dry Recycling Credits to each Waste Collection Authority. For Blaby District Council this means a loss in income of £505K per year. This coupled with the loss of the revenue funding from DEFRA means that the Council’s Refuse and Recycling Service will lose £740K of funding per year.
In addition the Council currently provides a number of ‘bring sites’ which are community recycling facilities to support the current recycling service. A feasibility study of these sites will be considered as part of this project to assess future need.
Larger bins
The District Council wishes to stress that current plans include giving residents the option to upgrade their bin from the standard 140ltr to 240ltr.
The proposal is that there will be increased capacity for recycling with the issue of larger recycling bins at no cost to residents should they require the extra capacity.
Look out for more information on the consultation to have your say.
When the consultation launches there will be a FAQ, online form and details of plans.
The Council say they are in the early stage of proposing the changes and residents input into that ‘redesign’ is very important to them.
Those affected can view the proposals discussed at Tuesday’s meeting by viewing the public document and reading from page 19.
Blaby Parish Council is in the process of applying to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to restore the Mortuary Chapel and Burial Ground.
Grant funding to support small businesses in the District of Blaby will be handed out over a four-year period after approval from Councillors.
A new initiative to improve the experience of people with dementia, who come into Leicester’s Hospitals, will be officially launched by Nicci Gerrard, founder of John’s Campaign and Julie Smith Chief Nurse, at Leicester’s Hospitals Champions Celebration Event on Wednesday, 13th September.
