Councillors to consider new ways of delivering services to power the Borough's future

New ways of working for key council services will be considered by Stockton-on-Tees Borough councillors next week.

The plans will explore how the Council can continue to address its financial challenges while ensuring residents are supported to live long, happy and healthy lives, existing businesses can grow and investment can flow into the Borough.  

The transformation work is part of Powering our Future, an ambitious and innovative programme which the Council embarked on earlier this year (January 2024). The report, which will be considered by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council's Cabinet on 17 October, includes proposals on changes to waste collection as well as fees and charges for services such as car parking, school catering and non-residential care.

Leader of Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, Councillor Bob Cook, said: "Since we set the budget in February we've been working hard to find ways to reshape our services and work alongside our partners and communities to create improved services for our residents and businesses. 

"Due to the financial challenges we are facing we've known for some time that we need to make changes to the way we work, which is why the 'Powering our Future' work and transformation reviews across the Council are underway. These proposals coming before Cabinet are part of this programme and show we are making progress.

"Continued demand on our services, rising costs and uncertain future funding streams continue to provide a really challenging climate for us. This is why we are sticking with our plan to innovate, reshaping what we do, finding ways to reduce inequality and build a bright future for those who live, study and work in the Borough.

"We need to use the limited amount of money we have wisely to deliver efficient services. We don't make proposals like this lightly and central to our thinking is how we can improve outcomes for our communities by remaining incredibly ambitious for the future of our residents, businesses and towns."

Waste collection

In February 2024, councillors agreed to improve household waste and recycling services across Stockton-on-Tees to better meet residents' needs, protect the environment and save money in the long term.

Based on work undertaken to assess the options and costs to implement change, the Council proposes to:

• collect food waste and recycling every week
• collect the other, residual waste on a fortnightly basis
• introduce a charge for a fortnightly green waste collection
• remove five community recycling centres to reduce fly tipping and anti-social behaviour

The proposals set out how each household will receive an additional blue bag for the collection of dry recycling and a new indoor and outdoor caddy for food waste. Fortnightly residual waste collections, weekly recycling and food waste collections will all begin from April 2026.  The new service will give residents the opportunity to increase the amount of waste which can be collected and recycled on a weekly basis, in a more convenient way.

As established elsewhere across the Tees Valley, the Council plans to introduce a fortnightly chargeable green waste service, which will start from April 2025 with residents able to sign up from December 2024. The cost will be £40 per annum to households with the first bin free. Households with larger gardens will also be able to buy an additional bin for a charge of £25.

After repeated incidents of anti-social behaviour and fly-tipping, five community recycling centres on private land across the Borough (known as bring sites) will also be closed with immediate effect.

The proposals will bring Stockton-on-Tees in line with other Tees Valley councils and the majority of councils across the country.

Fees and charges - car parking

Changes to shopping habits and the impact of the pandemic has significantly impacted the amount of income generated through car parking.

It means that several Council-run car parks need significant investment to keep them well maintained, safe and secure. 

Work undertaken as part of the transformation reviews has also highlighted that investment in updated technology such as contactless payment would improve the customer's experience and create a more efficient and modern service.

With the costs to maintain and operate the Borough's car parks outweighing the income generated, it is proposed to:

• remove first hour free parking in Stockton and Yarm Town Centre and introduce £1.50 charging for the first three hours
• increase long stay in all car parks to £3 for car parks in Stockton and Yarm Town Centre
• standardise pricing for car park passes to use at all sites at a discounted rate
• changes will apply to Stockton Town Centre and Yarm only as these are currently the areas where a parking charge system is implemented
• there will be no change to parking in Billingham, Norton, Ingleby Barwick and Thornaby

If approved, the proposals will ensure the car parks can be effectively maintained. It's also hoped that more people may choose to visit the towns for up to three hours rather than leaving after one hour, resulting in increased footfall which would benefit the businesses based in the towns and support economic growth.

Fees and charges - school catering service

Rises in the cost of food has created a significant pressure on the cost of delivering school catering. The income generated does not currently meet the costs, leaving a budget pressure each year.

Local authorities are not required to provide a school catering service, and many others have already taken the decision to cease their school catering service, with rising costs being a common factor.

The Council has continued to prioritise the school catering service to ensure healthy and nutritious options are available for school children across the Borough. Many schools and academy trusts continue to use the Council's school catering service because of its excellent reputation of providing healthy and nutritious meals for children and young people.

As part of work undertaken to review the challenges in Stockton-on-Tees, councillors will consider recommendations to revise charges for the school catering service for all maintained schools and academies. 

Under the proposals maintained school meals would be increased to £3 per child.

The service for academy trusts will also be reviewed to ensure the trust meets the full cost of the service being delivered.  Price per child will vary, depending on the size of the trust.

Proposals to operate a Free School Meal auto-enrolment scheme will also be considered. This will make sure as many eligible families as possible can access Free School Meals and will mean any families who have a child attending a maintained or academy school on a full time basis within the Borough will be written to and asked if they would like to 'opt out' of the scheme.

If approved, the proposals, which will be implemented from January 2025, will reduce the budget pressure while continuing to provide a balanced and nutritional school catering service, helping to give the Borough's children a healthy start.

Fees and charges - non-residential care charge

The Council currently has a maximum charge for residents receiving care at home of £459.60 per week. This has not been reviewed since 2017, when it was agreed that Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council would implement a maximum charge of 60 per cent of the cost of the care at home placement. In some cases this is below the true cost of the care provided and is adding to the financial pressures the Council is facing.

Following a change to national legislation many other councils removed the 60 per cent cap and began to charge the full cost of the care package. These plans propose to remove the maximum charge so that people who can afford to do so will pay the full cost of their care.  49 residents will be affected.

All residents will be assessed to ensure they are protected from inequality, dealt with in a fair and consistent way and are supported to receive their full eligible income.

If the proposals are approved the changes will be introduced immediately for new clients and implemented in April 2025 for existing clients.This will allow time for updated financial assessments to be undertaken.