Southend weekly bin collections could go to save £10m

Maintaining weekly bin collections was a key local election campaign pledge by Southend Conservatives

A council facing the biggest financial challenge in its history is considering binning weekly refuse collections to slash £10m from its spending.

Southend-on-Sea City Council, which has a projected overspend of £14m, could also halve its number of children's centres to make further savings.

A voluntary staff redundancy programme begins on Wednesday.

Council leader Tony Cox said it was the "toughest set of budget choices" since becoming a unitary authority in 1998.

Conservative council leader Tony Cox has previously said he planned to lobby government for more money

Maintaining weekly bin collections was a key local election campaign pledge by Southend Conservatives, who have run the council as a minority administration since May.

The new proposal to cabinet states "a full weekly collection service will be considerably more expensive than moving to alternate weekly collections".

The move was criticised by Southend's two Conservative MPs when it was mooted by the previous administration, led by Labour.

Sir James Duddridge, for Rochford and Southend East, said in 2021 it would "be a disaster for our city and send us right back to the 1970s with rubbish pilling up in the streets".

Last January, Southend West MP Anna Firth posted on Facebook saying that "no resident wants to pay more for less - so it's ridiculous that Southend council are considering scrapping our weekly bin collections".

The plans, due to be discussed by cabinet on Tuesday, include considering a private operator for the pier, which is owned and maintained by the council.

Other proposals which could save £1.2m to £1.4m:

• Closing two libraries, with three of the remaining four reducing their opening hours by one day

• Closing museums one hour earlier, which could save £200,000 a year

• Closing five children's centre and making the remaining four community hubs to save between £300,000 and £4000,000 a year

• Increasing council charges by 10%, except car parking which would increase by 7% and burials by 20%

• Scrapping three vacant director posts, saving £500,000

Southend's opposition leader, Labour's Daniel Cowan, said: "Most of these proposals seek to balance this lack of funding on the backs of the most vulnerable in our society, which is a false economy as it just increases demand in other areas.

"These proposals are deeply concerning and in many respects quite short sighted".

If Southend's cabinet approves the cuts and savings it is understood there is likely to be a £4m to £5m shortfall at the end of this financial year.

Further savings are expected to be made over the next four years with a budget gap forecast of £30m.