PLANS to microchip household wheelie bins to reduce the burden on waste costs on the elderly and single people are being considered by town hall chiefs in Douglas.
The move comes as Douglas Council prepares to set its rate for the coming year at a crunch meeting on January 24.
Council leader David Christian said this budget would be one of the most challenging the authority has faced – and he warned there could be cuts to staff numbers and services as the borough battled to balance the books.
He said: ‘We’ve delivered 12 budgets now and I would certainly rank this one right up at the top. We’ve put many hours in trying to find ways to reduce the pain.’
The biggest impact on borough finances has been the announcement that the government is withdrawing its £5.7 million annual waste disposal subsidy, transferring the cost onto the rate payer.
A 64 per cent cut in the subsidy is set to be followed by further reductions until 2018, adding an average 10p on the rates each year.
It will cost Douglas Council an extra £287,000 in the coming year and will take the burden from the current £700,000 to £2.2 million by 2018.
Councillor Christian said the authority was doing all it can to minimise the rate increase in the coming and future years. ‘People are starting to feel real pain out there. Times are tough.’
He said one proposal being looked at was to microchip household bins so that you only pay for the domestic waste that you produce.
Commercial bins are already microchipped in the borough.
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‘I believe that if you are paying a huge amount for waste disposal and you are producing very little then I don’t think that’s fair. It should be the principle of the user pays – you pay for what you put in the bin. If you have an elderly or single person living next door to a family of five why should they pay the same rate for their refuse? It’s a fair argument.’
Mr Christian said the borough engineer was looking at how much the initiative would cost but said the scheme would not be brought in this year.
One issue will be whether locks need to be put on the wheelie bins, as they are with the commercial bins, to stop abuse of the system – ie people dumping their rubbish in other people’s bins.
He said: ‘We need to weigh the costs up but I would argue we can’t afford not to do it. Obviously we want more people to recycle.’
An executive meeting of the council was held last Friday when officers and councillors poured over the estimates, capital schemes and reserves funds with a view to recommending a level for the rate.
Mr Christian said the authority had had to dip into its reserves over the last three to four years.
He said this time round, reductions in staff numbers and services had to be considered.
Douglas Corporation currently employs some 260 staff. The council leader said cutting this figure didn’t necessarily mean redundancies but the reduction could be achieved by not replacing those who take retirement.
This year, staff got a £400 lump sum pay award in line with Whitley Council manual workers but Mr Christian warned: ‘It could be this year there will be no pay award.’
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