ONCHAN Commissioners are angry about the proposed increases in waste disposal charges that are to be imposed upon local authorities by the government.
The authority will to absorb the cost to ratepayers for the year 2013-14 by using their financial reserves but this cannot be continued further. But rates will have to rise substantially in future.
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The authority was the first to set a rate for the next financial year. Indeed, it set it before the government’s announcement on the transfer of disposal costs. Ratepayers will pay 5p in the pound more, to 271p in the pound.
Commissioners’ chairman Robin Turton said: ‘We have always been aware that the government intended to raise the price of disposal at the Energy from Waste (EfW) plant, but their schedule appears to indicate that the entire cost of the EfW plant is now to be transferred to local authorities.’
The ‘lead member’ for properties and amenities, Rob Callister, pointed out that local authorities would be paying for the capital spending decisions of present and past governments and for the cost of a 25-year SITA contract into which the local authorities had no input.
Members agreed that there may be clauses in the SITA contract of which the authorities were totally unaware.
Mr Turton said: ‘Do we just take it on trust that the costs are justified, that government have negotiated a contract that is in the best interests of our rate-payers? What is the true gate cost for a tonne of waste? Has there ever been an audit of the costs to show that they are reasonable? What happens at the end of the SITA 25-year contract when further capital investment will be required?”
The board suggested these questions needed to be asked of the government.