Bin charges, pest control bills and bulky waste fees - Sunderland City Council budget zeroes-in on fly-tipping and waste

Sunderland City Council officers are busy putting together spending and council tax plans for the next financial year.

Now officers have issued a release on proposals for day-to-day services.

Known as the revenue budget, the proposals cover more than 600 services provided by the council from household waste and recycling collections, to social care, schools, highways, libraries and parks.Budget proposals to be considered by a meeting of senior councillor’s on Sunderland’s ruling Labour cabinet on Thursday, January 19 include::: Continue the non-replacement charge for lost or damaged wheelie-bins. The £25 charge was scrapped last year and put under a 12-month review.::A no-charge policy for pest control call outs to continue:: Ending the £10 charge for household bulky waste collections from the end of March. The charge was first introduced in 2013 and reduced from £22.50 to £10 in 2020. The council will continue to monitor demand for the new free household bulky collection service:: Proposals to help support increasing demands for adult and children’s social care are also on the Cabinet meeting agenda. Ongoing work to identify further savings and efficiencies in other services, staffing and property is continuing.Councillor Paul Stewart, Cabinet Secretary, said: "As a listening council, we've always been and continue to be very aware of how the cost of living crisis is impacting on city residents."We do look, wherever we can, to see how we can help residents and the wider city. We’re continuing to monitor demand for replacement wheelie-bins and the non-replacement charge remains in place until further notice, similarly with the pest control call out service."Ending the charge for bulky waste collections means there's no 'white van man' risk of a waste carrier who just advertises online, has no licensed credentials and disposes of the waste illegally."Council tax and more budget proposals are due at February’s Cabinet meeting before final decision-making, Cllr Stewart added.Wearside’s Liberal Democrat councillors have hailed the axing of the replacement bin charge as a victory after pushing council chiefs to ditch the fee.

Lib Dem councillors in Sunderland had forced a vote on the issue at a meeting of all 75 city councillors on January 25, asking all parties to back their plan for the £25 fee to be scrapped for good.

Opposition councillors also welcomed the extension of free pest control services in people’s homes for another year.

Councillor Julia Potts, who represents the Millfield ward for the Lib Dems, led the campaign against bringing back the £25 replacement wheelie bin fee.

“It is good news that council bosses have been shamed into doing the right thing by adopting the Lib Dem plan to extend the free replacement wheelie bin scheme instead of bringing back their hated £25 fee during a cost of living crisis,” she said.

“Keeping free pest control for people who have rats, mice and other pests in their homes and gardens for another year is also the right thing to do rather than people facing a £50 call out charge every time they have a problem.”