Chelmsford Garden waste charges being considered to help bridge budget gap

Chelmsford residents have been advised to brace for new charges for bin collections as the council grapples with a budget shortfall.

Chelmsford City Council have told residents that there will be an introduction of garden waste charges in addition to increases in fees and charges – the majority of which comes from parking.

Chelmsford City Council has an ongoing financial shortfall – equivalent to a quarter of its council tax revenue.

The council warned it is of such significance that, without “permanently and significantly increased support from central government, difficult choices will be inevitable”.

The council’s annual financial review for 2024/25 has identified a £4 million budget gap for the coming financial year and forecasts a total shortfall of £13 million over the next five years, unless major changes are made.

It means it is looking at initiatives to try to reduce the cost of temporary accommodation at the same time as reviewing is capital programme.

But without additional government support, however, savings alone are not predicted to be enough, and a review of fees and charges is “inevitable”, it adds. A proposal is on the table for the introduction of garden waste charging of around £60 which it says could generate between £1.3m and £1.7m a year.

The majority of the remaining gap of around £2.5m is likely to come from a mix of increasing income from fees and charges in particular and producing spending cuts.

Council leader Stephen Robinson has urged the new government to address local government funding – Chelmsford City Council estimates that it has ‘lost’ government funding of around £11m a year.

He said: “All councils are facing yet another difficult year. The government has promised more pain not less so we are not expecting things to get better. But we we wish they would and we wish the government would take seriously the financial crisis that every council in the country is facing. We are concerned that that Whitehall generally does not understand how the challenges council’s face all the time.”

He said there was a “mismatch” by the way they mandate the national living wage increase which has been 10 per cent in the last two years while also mandating there are income on council tax which is usually two per cent and this year three per cent. He said the way they housing benefit council payments is “unfair”.

He said: “It is particularly unfair to Chelmsford because we are in the same housing market area as Braintree and Maldon where property prices are a lot cheaper. It is impossible to find temporary accommodation at the level the government sets which is why we’ve had to place families outside of Chelmsford. And more generally the amount councils are allowed to reclaim in housing benefit is still set at 2011 rent levels.”

Councillor Chris Davidson, cabinet member for finance said: “In many ways, the financial challenge being faced by district councils is as bad as, if not worse than, during the pandemic. To give an idea of the scale of the task ahead, a £4 million gap is around a quarter of the council tax collected for the city council.”

He added: “We have a good track record of finding savings and I will present a balanced budget to Full Council early next year. But the shortfalls caused by the pressures we are facing are just too big to be filled by efficiencies alone. No council wants to put forward suggestions like new charges for garden waste collections, but we’ve now reached the point where, without extra government help, we must give this serious consideration.

“We are proud to be one of the few remaining Essex councils currently providing this service at no extra charge to our residents, but we have reached the point where reluctantly, this may no longer be possible. Not everybody uses our garden waste collections, and it is one of the few council services where people genuinely have a choice whether to pay or to use a free alternative like home composting.

“I do understand that people will be disappointed that the report puts this forward, but the alternative would mean permanent cuts to services all residents rely on, so this seems like the least bad option at this stage. Unfortunately, the easy decisions have already been taken. Unless we receive more funding from government, only hard choices remain.”

The annual financial review 2024/25 will be presented to cabinet on October 8 and the council’s budget for 2025/26 will be prepared over the coming months. An update on the government’s core local authority funding settlement for 2025/26 is expected at the end of the year.