This week Rother District Council (RDC) launch another consultation on further cuts to Rother’s services.
‘Following the continued loss of government funding and escalating costs, Rother District Council must find £3.2 million of extra income and savings in order to balance its budget.’ RDC said.
In answering the question, ‘Why have cost gone up’, Rother said, ‘Our new waste collection and street cleaning contract is going to cost a lot more than expected, around £2m more. With the collapse of the markets for waste plastic and paper we have lost substantial income and our contractor's costs have also gone up.’
In addition Rother said, ‘Our costs of providing emergency and temporary homes has increased due to a substantial increase in the number of homeless people and families in our district coming to the Council for help.’
RDC have confirmed that next year they will use £2.192 million from from reserves to help fill the gap between their income and their expenditure. Therefore Rother say they need to make more savings and raise their income over the next four years in order to gradually reduce the amount they need to take from their reserves to balance the budget.
As part of their consultation, Rother have outlined the options of either further cutting the services it provides or increasing their portion of the Council Tax by £5 per year.
Get more information, and to have your say about services such as bin collection, recycling and street cleaning click here. This consultation closes on 31 January 2020.
