Mileage cuts ‘could pay for bin collection’

AN OPPOSITION politician has called on Leeds City Council to slash the mileage allowances claimed and paid to council staff and use the savings to help fund more brown bin collections instead.

Councillor Caroline Anderson issued the challenge at this week’s monthly full council meeting at Leeds Civic Hall, where she asked the cabinet member for resources and strategy, James Lewis, if he believed the council should keep such staff mileage payments to a minimum.

Coun Lewis replied: “Yes, I think, is the answer to that.”

Coun Anderson then asked for a commitment from the council to review the costs and introduce more travel-free methods of working.

She suggested that cutting staff travel costs by just ten per cent in the last two years would have paid for citywide brown bin food and garden waste collections for a year.

Coun Anderson, Conservative councillor for Adel and Wharfedale, said: “The mileage allowances paid to staff are of course sometimes justified and necessary, but Leeds is close to paying out the most in this area of any other local authority.”

Speaking after the meeting, Coun Lewis said: “Car mileage allowances payments have fallen by over £800,000 per year in recent years and we continue to implement measures to reduce the need for travel.

“However, if the Conservatives are serious about local services they need to get their bosses in London to begin to reverse the cuts of over £275m to funding for our council that used to go towards covering running costs in many areas.”