CONTROVERSIAL decisions made by Allerdale council’s new executive are forecast to cost taxpayers nearly an extra £300,000.

The Tory-Independent executive was formed in May and within six weeks decided to halt a major project for an 8,000-capacity stadium to be built in Workington.

And a further six weeks later collection of plastic, cans and glass as well as garden waste was suspended after the council’s contractor FCC Environment missed thousands of bin collections.

At a meeting of Allerdale’s executive next Wednesday, councillors will discuss the forecast overspend.

And council leader Marion Fitzgerald is not shying away from her responsibilities and recognises it is the job of the current executive to solve the issues.

She said: “Executive members will consider the Quarterly Finance Report at a meeting on Wednesday and assess the content thoroughly. We want to ensure the council has a sound financial footing and will work with officers to ensure that.

“We acknowledge that the problems with the waste and recycling services have been difficult and the council will incur a cost both in terms of money and reputation. The council is determined to rectify the situation so we can deliver the type of service our residents expect.

“Members of the new executive committee recognise that it is the responsibility of the present council to resolve these issues so that Allerdale residents do not have to endure disruption to services for any longer than is necessary.”

The Governance and People Resources portfolio, which includes responsibility for the stadium project, is forecast to overspend by £61,510. Of this £34,737 are legal costs relating to the stadium. The rest of the cash is made up of different elements, including staffing costs.

And the Environmental Quality Portfolio, which includes responsibility for bin collections, is forecast to overspend £218,750.

Allerdale council said around £59,000 of the total forecast overspend is due to the suspension of glass, cans and plastics (co-mingled) and garden waste collections in July and August. The report says: “The overall reduction in tonnages collected will impact on the disposal costs, sales income and recycling credits received.”

The authority was anticipating to collect 7,400 tonnes of green waste and 3,692 of co-mingled. However following the suspension it is now forecast to collect 1,385 tonnes less garden waste and 378 less co-mingled.

A council spokesman said: “Recycling Credits are paid to Allerdale council (as the statutory collection authority) by Cumbria County Council (the statutory disposal authority) to encourage the collection of domestic recycling at a district level. The payment is based on a price per tonne and in 2019/20 the price paid is £72.12.”

Paper and card collections were not suspended, however the council is expecting to collect 280 tonnes less than initially forecast for this financial year.

The report to executive members by the council’s head of financial services said this reduction, together with a lower-than-expected sales price per tonne, will result in a forecast overspend of £55,000. This forms part of the total overspend forecast for the Environmental Quality Portfolio, as is a total of around £131,000 overspend in one-off costs to run the waste contract.

One-off costs are expected to come in at around £214,000 instead of £83,000. This is due to extra costs including £46,000 external professional advice and £21,000 of external communication linked to the suspension of services. The council is also expecting to spend £110,000 on additional staffing, instead of the forecast £50,000.

The report said: “Due to a significant increase in queries received relating to waste services the number of temporary staff required to investigate and respond to these has increased from original expectations. The suspension of co-mingled and green waste recycling services has also required these temporary staff to be retained for longer than originally anticipated.”

Earlier this week Independent councillor Stephen Stoddart, portfolio-holder for housing, health and wellbeing, revealed that shortly after the new Independent-Tory executive was formed, it emerged that waste contractors FCC had not signed an agreement.

However a spokesman for the authority has insisted that although a contract was not signed, a “legally-binding contractual arrangement” is in place.

Mr Stoddart said the council will have to give FCC more money to deliver the service. He said that although they agreed the contract with the previous Labour executive, they were now asking the new executive at Allerdale to pay them more money.