EXTRA rubbish collections in Mach­ynlleth are partly to blame for a council waste services overspend of £385,000, a cabinet report has claimed.

A report written by Powys County Council’s cabinet member for fin­ance, Cllr Wynne Jones, and published last week ahead of yesterday‘s (Tuesday) cabinet meeting where it was due to be discussed, claims an overspend of £385,000 is “due to extra weekend collections in Machynlleth” as well as “costs of sickness and holidays being greater than esti­mated”.

But Cllr Michael Williams, county council member for Machynlleth, has hit back at the report, labelling the claims “completely misleading”, “totally unfair” and “wrong” because they don’t consider savings made by closing the recycling centre at Potters Yard.

The report, entitled ‘Financial Overview and Forecast as at 31 January 2016’, reads: “Waste Operations forecast an outturn overspend of £264,000 (£262,000 as at December).

“An overspend of £385,000 on staffing and subcontractor costs, due to extra weekend collections in Machynlleth, as previously reported, and the costs of sickness and holidays being greater than estimated at budget setting are offset by increased income from in-house delivery of services and greater Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate Single Revenue (ESDDR) grant than estimated.”

Speaking to the Cambrian News this week, Cllr Williams said: “That is completely misleading in my opinion.

“Trs regarding the cost of household waste services in Machynlleth, the savings anticipated by closing the Machynlleth Household Waste Recycling Centre, run by Potters on behalf of the council, was a minimum of something like £230,000 up to a maximum of about £450,000."

Cllr John Powell, Cabinet member for environment and sustainability, said: “The report is a financial overview and budget forecast for the full service not just the Saturday service. The report lists the causes of the overspend as the new service and the costs of sickness and holidays being greater that estimated at budget setting for the service, not just the Saturday.”

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