The leader of Allerdale Borough Council has strongly denied claims by a prominent Labour politician that the authority could be “bankrupt” within two years.

Billy Miskelly,  northern branch secretary of the Workington Constituency Labour Party, made the claims as it has emerged the council’s controversial suspension of some recycling services has cost the council almost quarter of a million since July.

But Independent council leader Marion Fitzgerald has insisted that there is “no danger” of the authority hitting the buffers, describing his comments as “without foundation and “completely unreasonable”.

She stressed that “additional funds” had been found from existing budgets, with an announcement on the resumption of services - which shas now been confirmed as September 9.

The council suspended glass, plastics, cans and garden waste collections to ensure all household rubbish was collected on the scheduled day and to allow time for a solution to be thrashed out with contractors FCC Environment.

But the move means the council has been stripped of recycling credits and has had to pay extra costs to manage the crisis.

Mr Miskelly, who is also secretary of the Workington Town Council Labour Group, claimed the financial position is “so dire” that the authority is facing bankruptcy in between 18 months and two years.

He described the stripping of the council’s recycling credits, as “substantial blow financially”, with the serious “knock on effects” on the budget becoming clear in the “near future”.

He added that “most of the income” from Allerdale council’s portion of the council tax covers rubbish collection, with little or no funds leftover for other issues, and that the “extreme extra cost and lost recycling revenue” had “eaten into the reserves.”

The councillor also blasted the executive for “capitulating” to the demands of the contractor FCC, describing the interim measures now in place as “effectively a return to the previous contract”.

“The executive has agreed to pay all the costs for sorting out the backlog, not to penalise them financially, and to cover the extra overtime costs for their staff and extra collections and tipping needed,” he said.

Celia Tibble, the country council’s portfolio-holder for environment, said the top tier authority had been in regular contact with the borough council since the announcement.

She said the county had offered support, including keeping members and officers informed of the extra charges they were racking up.
Allerdale council has missed out on two months’ worth of recycling credits which would have been paid out to them as the collection authority.

The recycling credits received by the council were £67,761 in July 2017/18; £66,193 in August 17/18; £48,740 in July 2018/19 and £62,920  in August 2018/19.

On top of that, Allerdale will be billed by the country council for the extra lifts of all the skips from the household waste recycling centres (HWRCs) at Workington, Maryport and Wigton.

Among the extra expenditure is the increased gate fees (or tipping fee), the charge levied upon a given quantity of rubbish received at processing plants.
Interim measures are now in place as work continues on a longer-term solution, which could see the authority bringing waste services back in house.

FCC Environment have declined to comment on their failure to deliver on the original contract which started in April.