Barwell tip now county council run

BARWELL tip is back in the hands of county hall after operations at all recycling and household waste sites were brought ‘in-house’.

It’s a cost-cutting venture which Leicestershire County Council hope will free up £400,000 a year.

County councillors agreed last June to run the service once more after out-sourcing to Environmental Waste Controls Ltd (EWC) since 2006.

The decision was prompted by the contract with EWC coming to an end in 2017 and the cashstrapped authority’s need to cut costs.

The only tip which remains in third party control is Whetstone, which is run by Suez Environmental. All 13 others have been transferred to the council’s own waste department.

The service at these will continue at current levels with no changes to opening days or hours. The council say the only difference residents will notice is that purchases for bags of compost will now need to be made by card.

Councillor Blake Pain, cabinet member for waste, said: “Running the sites in-house will help us to save money while continuing to support the public in recycling and disposing of waste.”

As part of the insourcing some of the 13 sites will be closed for one day for staff training. For Barwell the closure will be Monday August 7.

A dwindling grant from the Government and increasing pressure on services means the council is constantly having to do more with less money.

Over the last seven years some £161 million has been shaved off its budget with hundreds of redundancies and swingeing service reductions.

But a further £66 million needs to be axed over the next four years with around £23 million of that unaccounted for.

While savings of £400,000 are anticipated the venture has required an investment from the council to be able to fully operate the service.

Some £900,000 is being set aside from a budget underspend in environment and transport to buy new haulage vehicles.

When the matter was approved last June, Cllr Pain confirmed that alternatives had been considered but that the option to in-house the service provided the greatest level of flexibility and control, and was the most deliverable although this was not without some risk.