By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter
There are concerns the funding crisis affecting Gloucester City Council could lead to streets “blighted by piles of rubbish awaiting collection”.
The City Council is in desperate need of a Government bailout loan of between £12.5m and £17.5m.
And as part of its recovery plan they will look to make savings and generate more income.
Labour councillors are concerned that the contract with Ubico, who collect rubbish and recycling and provide street cleaning and grounds maintenance services, will be reviewed.
Liberal Democrat council chiefs told last night’s (December 18) special meeting that there are no plans to do away with the fortnightly collection of rubbish and reduce recycling collections but do want to see if they can “make efficiencies”.
This was in response to comments by Deputy Labour group leader Karen James (Kingsway) who said one of her “major concerns” about the council’s “dire financial situation” is that frontline services would be affected.
“I am concerned to read in this report that there will be a review of the Ubico contract.”
She asked for assurances that the review would not consider the frequency of bin collections.
“With refuse collections currently fortnightly, larger households already struggle to manage their waste over that two week period. A household with a young family produces an alarming amount of waste even with judicious recycling can fill a wheelie bin without trying.
She said you could always tell when bin day was due in Kingsway and other parts of the city by the number of “overflowing wheelie bins” on the doorsteps.
“We’ve got a number of wards in Gloucester where wheelie bins can’t even be used where terraced streets have to rely on bags for their rubbish.
“Imagine having to deal with more than a fortnight’s waste if you live in these areas.”
She also said recycling collection should be “sacrosanct” and the council must do all it can to avert the climate crisis and recycle as much as possible.
“I’m in a two person household and we regularly put out more than one recycling bin each week.
“If recycling collection moves to fortnightly, we would struggle with the resulting mountain of tins, glass and paper.”
She also said Ubico is responsible for street cleaning and any reduction of this service would exacerbate the problem if they coincide with bin collection cuts.
“It goes without saying that less frequent collections of rubbish and recycling, leading to more problems for households in containing and storing, will lead to communities blighted by piles of rubbish awaiting collection.
“So if street cleaning is also reduced, these problems will exacerbate each other.”
Council leader Jeremy Hilton (LD, Kingsholm and Wotton) said there would be cuts to non-statutory service but he wanted to send a clear message.
“We will not be getting rid of the fortnightly collection,” he said. “We are not looking at that and we don’t want to downgrade the recycling.
“That is an income for us. There are no plans for that.
“Whether we can make efficiencies in the Ubico contract, we’ll have a look at it.
“It’s much wider than refuse collection.”
The council is expected to be told by February if their exceptional fund support application is successful.