Yet again council tax payers in the Royal Borough are going to save money.  This time it’s due to contract arrangements put in place by local Councillors.  New arrangements for the Borough’s waste collection services could save taxpayers at least £3m over the next seven years, whilst introducing better services.

I have recently learnt that the council is to extend its current waste and allied services contract with Veolia Environmental Services which could save £1.3million in 2012/13 alone.

The deal also includes many “extras” including a new organic waste collection, which will provide more than 61,000 homes with specially designed caddies for food waste, such as left-over meat and fish. This will begin in the borough from February 2012 and food will be taken away and processed into compost; this in itself will help reduce the burden of landfill tax- nearly £400,000 over three years from 2012/13.

Last year, I was delighted to officially launch the borough wide Recyclebank scheme, which has helped increase recycling rates from 35% to 44%.  This has been a fantastic success and these new arrangements further highlight how hard local Councillors are working to bring the best services to local residents, whilst also reducing cost.

I very much hope that the Coalition can make the same sort of efficiency-savings on a nationwide basis.

This is an excellent result for taxpayers at a difficult time for household budgets.