Cambridgeshire consults on waste merger

Plans to move to a shared waste service with a single management team for Cambridge City Council and the surrounding South Cambridgeshire District Council villages are under consultation in a bid to cut costs by 15 per cent within three years.

The idea of merging the waste services was first mooted in July. A recent  joint report, published on Wednesday, 8 October, which outlines the plan, has stated that both councils' waste and recycling teams would be overseen by a single management and support structure, with further savings also coming from restructuring bin collection rounds across the district and city border.

Redesigning waste collection rounds to ignore local authority boundaries will also help the councils respond to housing growth across the area.

As part of the plans, Cambridge City Council's team would relocate to South Cambridgeshire District Council's depot in Waterbeach.

A cabinet meeting on 16 October by Cambridge City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council Joint Waste Working recommended that:

• It would have single management structure and workforce, located at the Waterbeach Depot;
• The depot would become a single shared waste service, wholly owned and run by the local authorities; and
• It would use a single pool of vehicles for Cambridge City and South Cambridgeshire District Council.

The move comes a councils look for ways to save money, after the reduction in government grants. The predicted savings of the new scheme will be spread equally between the districts. According to the report annual savings of around £350,000 could be achieved in the next 12 months, increasing to around £700,000 within three years.

Peter Roberts, Executive Councillor for Environment, Waste and Public Health at Cambridge City Council, said: "A good-quality waste collection and recycling service for the city is so important and by joining forces with South Cambridgeshire District Council we can maintain and improve our service whilst achieving significant savings that are necessary given that we have less money overall. I welcome the opportunity to make these changes and to protect vital Council services in this way."

Councillor Mick Martin, South Cambridgeshire District Council's cabinet member for environmental services, added: "Reductions to the funding we receive from government, twinned with a growing population, means we have to continue to find ways to do more for less. The growth on the border of our area with Cambridge City means working closer together makes perfect sense; by being smarter with the way we set up our rounds we will deliver better value-for-money for council taxpayers. Our recent changes show how we try our best to minimise the effect on residents and staff, and by continuing to work with the unions we are looking to do this again."