City of York’s Conservative councillors will next week table an amendment to the Labour budget which if passed will better realign the 2025-26 spending with residents’ priorities. The headline item will be the removal of Labour’s charge for the first green bin that residents get, Conservatives believe it is a core frontline service.
The budget will include:
1. Residents no longer paying an additional charge for their first green bin (charge still payable for additional bins)
2. No increase in the Minster Badge and a £200,000 fund for parking initiatives as and when needed to boost the city centre
3. Cutting the cost of politics with the removal of Political Assistants, reducing so called ‘Special Responsibility Allowances’ (which see one councillor receive over £11,000 just for chairing one committee) and a senior management review to save £200,000.
4. New transport proposals with funding to explore an Orbital bus route linking villages to Park & Ride sites and to get a Community Transport solution to replace the defunct Dial & Ride or to back small, local initiatives.
5. A £1 million increase in the highways budget.
6. A new Rural Hardship fund to ensure poorer residents are accessing all the help and benefits they are entitled to in a system which often feels very city centre focus.
Cllr Steward said:
Once again our budget shows that if the council is run more efficiently then more money can be invested in the areas residents want – with greater highways funding, no first green bin charge, free compost bins and giving local people a better deal whether they want to travel by car or bus or cycle. We are doing this by cutting inefficiency within the council like needless management and the spin and propaganda of the comms department.
Deputy Leader Cllr Martin Rowley added:
Collection of waste is an absolutely key frontline service and we believe collecting green waste should be part of this. Separating green waste also ensures more waste can be disposed of or recycled in the best way. Labour kept quiet ahead of the election about brining in a possible charge for residents’ first green bins and it seems they planned this stealth tax all along. Our amendment would also make compost bins free, which will cost the council very little but again will be of a great help to residents and accepting our point or not will test how truly green this administration is.
