Dudley bin collection changes bid defeated
Rubbish bins will still be collected once a week across the Dudley borough after proposals by the council's controlling Labour group to switch to fortnightly collections were defeated.
The Labour leadership could not be sure of forcing through the proposals as it no longer has a majority in the council chamber and was duly outvoted by Conservative and UKIP members who were against the plans.
Conservative group leader Councillor Patrick Harley accused leaders of 'mean service cuts' but Labour members have now challenged the opposition to find savings they say need to be made.
They had hoped to save £2.3 million with the move, which would have also seen residents charged £30 a year for green waste collections.
The council's finance boss Councillor David Sparks said: "No-one would choose to introduce these changes or charges but it just forces us to continue to look for cuts.
"We still have a massive hole in the budget as in a couple of years time the gap between income and expenditure will be over £20 million because of Government cuts."
