No green bin emptying charges

The new Coalition Executive in York has announced some changes to the budget that it inherited from Labour.

Incoming

• Scrapping plans to charge for green bin emptying or reduce grey bin emptying frequencies
  

  Andrew Waller successfully opposed more green bin charges

• Two extra green bin empties during winter
• £250,000 a year investment in highway maintenance
• More for street sweeping
• More for salting roads and footpaths in winter.
• More transparent decision making
• Improved customer interfaces
• Restoring the cuts to Community Centre funding
• Encouraging local small business to tender for Council contracts
• Increased support for local and rural bus services
• New Ward committee budgets which will be spent in line with local residents wishes

Outgoing:

• Funding for an “Arts Barge”
• The use of expensive “consultants”
• Subsidies for Trades Unions
• The trial bus service between the railway station and the hospital
• Funding for political propaganda

The papers published today for a Council meeting taking place on 16^th July also promise a review of the Housing Revenue Account. This is the expenditure paid from from Council house rents. A “review” falls some way short of the expected commitment to undertake a major clean up and regeneration of the City’s Council estates, which is urgently required.

Also missing is any proposal to regenerate sub-urban shopping areas like Front Street.

Overall though the proposals are step in the right direction.

The Council will also need to get a grip on its capital expenditure (and resultant interest payments) while keeping something in reserve to address the underlying failings of the budget passed in March – which looks increasingly fragile.

Full details of the budget changes can be found by clicking here