Yahoo News Bins, car park and waste station: Stockton Council agrees to borrow £4.3m to fund projects
A council has voted to borrow £4.3m for new bins and waste containers, a waste transfer station and resurfacing a town centre car park.
The Labour-led Stockton Council proposed to borrow the money. Councillors voted in favour of the borrowing, rejecting a Conservative alternative of taking the money from reserves set aside for other things.
The authority said it needed the £4.3m, made up of:
READ MORE: Challenge over 'misleading' and 'disturbing' cost-cutting council plans
£1m to buy 40,000 new green waste bins for a £40-a-year collection service starting in April 2025, to meet government guidelines from 2026;
£1.2m to buy food and recycling containers for a weekly collection from April 2026, with food waste collections required by law;
£1.1m to prepare a new station to sort and transfer waste for recycling;
£1m to resurface the Wellington Square car park in Stockton town centre.
It will spend 30 years paying off the money borrowed to "make good" the waste station, 20 years for the Wellington Square cash and 10 years for the waste bins and receptacles funds. The measures are part of changes meant to save £4.6m towards a £8.7m gap in the council's budget over the next three years.
At a full council meeting on Wednesday night (November 20), council leader Councillor Bob Cook said: "This item has come from the cabinet recommending that we go with prudential borrowing. Obviously this is the most beneficial method of funding. It uses revenue that we have that will pay for the prudential borrowing."
Conservative group leader Cllr Tony Riordan put forward a different suggestion. He said £3.3m should come from earmarked reserves and £1m from unused borrowing approvals in the council's capital programme.
Cllr Riordan said: "The report highlights several transformation issues facing this council. To address these pressing issues the recommendation is to borrow more money to allow the most beneficial method of funding the investment required, and to aid immediate financial pressures on the medium term financial plan.
'Look at other options'
"I would request members look at other options available that would not add to the financial burden that this council is already putting on the strained resources of our residents.
"Our earmarked reserves which are there to meet predicted liabilities, the transformation issues regarding waste and recycling, and the predicted financial resource liabilities have been known for an exceptionally long time. As far back as February this year, the council were awarded a grant of £1.4m towards these liabilities from Defra."
He said a £6.3m reserve included allocations for environmental improvements and a £2.9m reserve was meant to support the council's transformation agenda. He added both of these were a small part of the council's earmarked reserves pot.
He also highlighted unused borrowing approvals of £7.7m in the capital programme for reshaping town centres. He asked: "Why have previously borrowed money sloshing around for an unidentified purpose?
"I would invite members to support the amendment, thereby relieving the financial pressures on the council whilst at the same time not placing further financial burden upon our local taxpayers."
This amendment was voted down 26-22 with two abstentions. The council's original motion to borrow the money was carried by a 28-22 vote.
For breaking news in your area direct to your inbox every day, go here to sign up to our free newsletter
