EDITOR - In response to the letter in last week's Louth Leader about the decision to stop green waste collections during the winter, the authors state they pay 'very high Council Taxes and receive very poor service for them'.
East Lindsey District Council retains on average £8.40 per month from your Council Tax payment. 91 per cent of the Council Tax you pay to us we pay straight to the police and Lincolnshire County Council, with some town/parish councils also receiving
a share.
East Lindsey District Council just collects your Council Tax - we keep only a small percentage!
The authors ask if this is a case of the council saving money. Yes it is and also the service isn't been well used. We need to save money as does the whole community and there's no getting away from that fact.
We have some tough decisions that lie ahead to do this and unfortunately not every decision will be popular. In making these decision, what we will try and do is minimise the impact on services.
Evidence from our green waste collections shows the service isn't well used in the winter with only 50 lorry loads being collected a month compared to 300 in the summer, which is one of the reasons we identified the saving here.
As well as the financial saving we'll also dramatically reduce the impact this service has on the environment.
Other Councils across the country will also be looking for savings as we all face rising costs, increasing government demands and smaller government grants to support what we do.
At the same time, we want to continue to provide excellent services and keep the Council Tax you pay to us as the lowest in Lincolnshire and one of the lowest in the country.
I hope this response helps to explain some of the issues raised in the letter.
If anyone has any questions they would like answering on this they can e-mail me at doreen.stephenson@e-lindsey.gov.uk
Coun Doreen Stephenson
Leader of East Lindsey District Council
