4:00am Friday 12th March 2010
By Paul Offord
Basildon Council hopes to save taxpayers’ money in the future by joining forces with a neighbouring authority.
Staff across Basildon Council have been sent an e-mail saying talks have been held with Chelmsford Council.
It is understood this could lead to mergers between waste collection, planning, environmental health, council tax collection and other services between both councils.
Malcolm Buckley, cabinet member for the environment, believes money can be saved and claimed there is currently a wasteful overlap of certain services.
For example, homes in several roads in Wickford, including Waverley Crescent and Downham Road, have rubbish collected by Basildon, while others rely on the Chelmsford authority.
He said: “It would make sense if there was greater co-operation between the two authorities in areas like this.
“We can’t go into too much detail about how sharing services will work, because the talks are at a very early stage and nothing has been agreed yet.”
Basildon’s opposition Labour group leader Lynda Gordon warned this could lead to job losses, but Mr Buckley denied the accusation.
Mrs Gordon said: “It is clear there are going to be job losses, otherwise where are you going to save the money?”
Mr Buckley responded: “This is just scaremongering by the Labour group.”
Both Basildon and Chelmsford councils are run by Tory administrations.
Roy Whitehead, leader of Chelmsford Council, said: “We are both fairly similar sized councils, and there are certain things we could share.
“This would be most likely to happen with services, such as council tax and business rate collection, but we will also be prepared to consider waste collection.
“We all know there are going to be cuts in Government funding to councils, and there will be job losses if we don’t make efficiency savings.
“saving money through sharing certain services could safeguard jobs.”
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