Backwell Recycling Centre to close as North Somerset Council looks to close budget gap
North Somerset Council’s executive approved plans to close Backwell Recycling Centre on Wednesday night
North Somerset Council’s executive approved plans to close Backwell Recycling Centre on Wednesday night, as part of a pack of measures to tackle a budget gap of £17m.
Cabinet members unanimously approved the package of cuts and savings which will reduce the £17m funding gap for 2023/24 to £4.1m. The measures will still need to be approved as part of next year’s budget.
Closing the recycling centre is one measure which will save the council £300,000 which they say allows them to focus on protecting help for the vulnerable. But people who use the Backwell centre would have to drive take their recycling to Weston-super-Mare or Portishead and use their recycling centres.
At a press conference before the executive meeting Ash Cartman, executive member for corporate services, said: “It’s five minutes extra in a car or its less people in children’s centres or social care. That’s the choice we are grappling with.”
Council leader Steve Bridger said: “We don’t want to be doing it but there’s got to be some perspective that its not the end of the world.”
He claimed that the previous administration had cut other services while keeping the recycling centre open and said: “Politics is about choices and I don’t think that was a good one.”
He added: “If three becomes two we will still have one of the best recycling rates in the country and the best in the South West. People will still be able to recycle a lot of stuff kerbside.”
The budget cuts would also see the cost of collecting garden waste go up and Churchill Sports Centre’s closure made permanent among many other measures. In total the council is aiming to reduce its spending by 10% in order to balance its budget.
The plans are not immediately coming into effect. Consultations will be held on the proposals before they are included in the council’s budget next year.
But Mr Cartman said: “We have still got four million left to go. There’s not much room to change it but it is a genuine consultation.”
The council is also planning to cut about 50 council jobs, with people moved into other positions if possible. Mr Cartman said: “I would expect, if we can keep people, we will.”
Mr Bridger placed blame for the council’s financial position on the government, saying: “You can’t just expect us to do more with less every year, year after year and expect it not to break at one point.”
He said that the ability to increase council tax by 2.99% would not help North Somerset because, due to council tax in the authority being low, 2.99% translates to a smaller amount of money than in other authorities with a higher tax burden.
The council is now looking to the lower tiers of government for support. Mr Bridger said: “Personally I would like town and parish councils to do a bit more.”
He said that he had been having conversations with some of the town and parish councils in the district about taking on services that North Somerset Council could no longer afford to run.
Even with the planned cuts, the council still has to identify an additional £4.1 million of savings. Mr Bridger said they were waiting for a further funding announcement from the government, expected late in December, before reevaluating what else could be cut.
He said: “We don’t want to be making cuts if we don’t need to.”
The council’s financial modelling shows that they could face even larger funding gaps in the future, with a funding gap of £8.8m in 2024/25 and £8.6 in 2025/26.
Mr Bridger “We need to deal with 2023/24 first.”