Wirral Council has faced claims it "rewarded" its bins contractor while no rubbish was being collected due to strike action.
The local authority’s bin collection is handled by Biffa to collect waste across the Wirral but when more than 200 workers walked out in December, collections stopped.
The strike was called off after workers secured a pay rise when council leader Janette Williamson held talks on Christmas Day to end the dispute. However it took several weeks for the bin collections to catch up due to extra rubbish building up over the holiday period.
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In an email sent on January 6, Wirral Council said it had the ability to “withhold payment given appropriate circumstances and if service disruption is not rectified within a period of time.”
A decision was made not to do this though Wirral Council will charge Biffa compensation for "the additional demand on services, officer time and other expenses.”
Cllr Stuart Kelly, who represents Oxton, thinks this decision was wrong. He said: “It beggars belief the council has effectively paid Biffa for not collecting any bins and rewarded them for the chaotic catch up which followed.
“If I employ a contractor to do some work for me and they don’t do that work the last thing I would do is pay them.
“Many people believe the disruption caused to residents by Biffa should be compensated by a council tax refund. I doubt that is possible but the money the council didn’t need to pay Biffa for the non-collection weeks could have been used to repair, replace or provide new street bins.”
Cllr Kelly said he'd asked the council for details on the compensation and how much was paid to Biffa during the strike but “so far, I have been met with a wall of silence from officers.” Cllr Kelly sits on the Audit and Risk Management committee which scrutinises council decisions and finances.
A spokesperson for Wirral Council said: “Negotiations with the council's waste collection contractor are continuing following the recent industrial action and councillors are due to be updated on this later this week.
“In the run-up to Christmas the council was faced with a worsening position for bin collections, partly due to industrial action by the bin collection contractor and partly due to very poor weather conditions.
“All of this took place at the time of year when there is a very significant increase in household waste from food waste to bottles and cardboard.
“Had the dispute continued, the severe disruption and delays would still be happening. Given the disruption caused to thousands of residents the council took steps available to it over the Christmas period to help get the service back up and running, and bin collections are now back to normal.”
Biffa were also approached for comment.
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