Bristol City Council has given its waste company a £4million bailout, it has been revealed.
The extra annual cash injection, funded by taxpayers from April 2024, aims to keep Bristol Waste’s loss-making kerbside collection, recycling and street cleaning services at the current level.
It comes after the local authority’s Quality of Life Survey found residents were more satisfied with its services than any other provided by the council, and City Hall chiefs are determined to keep it that way.
The business will make a £2million loss in the current financial year but the additional money will see this reduced over the next two years before the firm finally breaks even with a small projected profit of £27,000 in 2026/27, a council meeting was told.
Council chief executive Stephen Peacock said: “You will see there is a £4million contribution from Bristol City Council to allow the company to basically maintain the current standard of service. “It’s fantastic news that, despite everything we are dealing with, we have been able to do what the administration was hoping to achieve which was to keep the service the way it is, recognising the Quality of Life Survey data. “
Bristol Waste interim finance director Gary Phillips said: “The current year has seen many different cost impacts.
“Drivers’ wage increases have been higher than budget, we’ve got an ageing fleet of vehicles, we’re six years into their eight-year life so we’re seeing high costs for spare parts, maintenance, and we are also beholden to fuel costs in the market.”
He said prices for recyclable materials, which the business collects and sells on, had “dropped dramatically”.
By Adam Postans, Local Democracy Reporting Service