Council wastes £600k on useless bin lorry depot

A COUNCIL which cut bin collections to once a month has spent £626,000 of taxpayers’ cash on a waste depot that it cannot use.

Despite fierce opposition, town hall chiefs in Conwy, north Wales, became the first in England and Wales to force four-weekly collections on households in September last year.

Yesterday it emerged the local authority, which raised council tax by almost 10 per cent last month, signed a deal to house bin lorries and gritters at a depot in Colwyn Bay. But the property cannot be used because its floor is too weak.

Despite this, the council started paying rent in February 2017. It paid £391,500 up to June last year when the owner of the property agreed to freeze rent payments until the issue is resolved.

Another £23 ,800 has been paid in business rates for the depot since the lease was signed in May 2016.

Sam Rowlands, the local authority’s cabinet member for finance, revealed the spending to its scrutiny committee. He added: ‘We have (lodged) an appeal to claw back this money...’

A spokesman for Conwy County Borough Council said the leasing decision ‘fell short of our own high standards’.