By Leicester Mercury | Posted: 20 November, 2014
A hospice boss says County Hall’s plans to scrap his charity’s free waste tipping will cost it the equivalent of caring for two dying patients.
Chief executive of LOROS Simon Proffitt has implored Leicestershire County Council to rethink plans to charge it to dump rubbish at municipal waste tips.
LOROS is one of about 60 organisations currently not charged to use Leicestershire’s 14 recycling centres.
However the Tory-led council is considering scrapping the free tipping permits it issues as part of a package of measures designed to save about £1 million.
Simon Proffitt, the chief executive of the hospice in Groby Road, Leicester, said the move could cost the charity an extra £15,000 annually at a time when it is under financial pressure.
He wrote to council leader Nick Rushton and his colleagues saying: “We have estimated, that if you were to go ahead with the proposal to charge for tipping at the normal commercial rate the additional cost to our charity each year would be the equivalent of us providing care on our ward for two patients.
“In the case of LOROS, our overall financial situation is very challenging.
“We are reporting a deficit in our accounts for the first time in many years.
“Any additional costs, such as that for waste tipping, risks having a direct impact on our ability to provide the much needed care for our terminally ill patients and support for their families.
“I implore you to try to find the savings in some other way.”
Mr Proffitt told the Mercury he did not want to reveal the extent of the deficit before the charity’s latest accounts were published in the new year.
However he said: “We tip about 150 tonnes of waste at county sites a year. This is the stuff that is very generously donated to our charity shops but is not in a condition that allows us to sell it on.
“In the council documents it talks of a charge of about £90 a tonne.
“We are in a financial squeeze at the moment and it is not a cost we can just absorb.”
Age UK Leicestershire and Rutland executive director Tony Donovan said: “The permits are really important to charities such as Age UK.
“The withdrawal of the tipping permit would impact significantly and could lead to the closure of a number of charity shops which could in turn result in the loss of a number of local services.”
He said unusable donations were often dumped outside shops or that items could not be refused without causing offence so they had to be tipped.
County council cabinet member for waste councillor Blake Pain said charities generated income from their waste so it was fair that they should contribute to its disposal.
He told Wednesday’s cabinet meeting: “Clearly we value what charities do in Leicestershire.
“We try to do what we can, when we can to help them but the county council if facing some very very difficult financial challenges.
“If we could maintain the status quo we would but the financial situation means we need to explore every option.”
Scrapping tipping permits could save County Hall £90,000 annually. It is looking at saving £200,000 by only allowing Leicestershire residents to use the tips.
Other savings could be achieved by closing some tips on certain days and bringing in charges to dump DIY waste and commercial rubbish or simply not accepting it at all.
The county council will be consulting on the proposals from January until March.
