Windsor and Maidenhead council tax set to go up and weekly bin collections axed

People living in Windsor and Maidenhead could see their council tax bill increase from next year.

The Royal Borough council is also considering scrapping the weekly black bin collections as part of a plan to save almost £8 million.

According to the council’s draft 2021/22 budget – which was published on Thursday (December 10) – a number of proposals have been outlined.

The plans include swapping the weekly general waste collection to fortnightly with the retention of recycling and food waste bin collections, reducing library opening hours, reviewing the council’s rural car parks, ceasing the partnership sports development work, and more.

Children’s services could see around £800,000 worth of savings with the removal of discretionary travel awards, a “redesign” of the health visiting service, and a “simplified” therapy offer.

Over £2 million of savings have been identified in adult social care with some actions including developing “alternative options” for supporting residents in need of additional support and “maximising the income due to the council from resident contributions”.

Council tax could also go up to its maximum next year by two per cent and raising the adult social care precept by three per cent, totalling a five per cent council tax bill.

This means residents living in Band D would see their council tax rise by £54.32 from £1,077.41 to £1,131.73.

Although added pressures of the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to this “significant financial challenge”, the council is “more acute” than other local authorities due to its historically low reserves – which are “barely adequate” to cover the bills.

Past financial mismanagement and the increase of demand in adult social care and children’s services also added to the 2021 financial challenge.

According to the report, Covid-19 has created over £9.2 million worth of growth and pressures on the 2021/22 budget.

However, councillor David Hilton (Conservative: Ascot and Sunninghill), lead member for finance, said the council is “anticipating” they will receive about £4.7 million from government to offset some of the pressures.

It was reported in the medium-term financial strategy the council needed to make a projected £18 million of savings in the next five years – but that has now risen to around £22 million.