Braintree Council is aiming to save £62,000 in the way the town's refuse is collected in order to meet demands of other "unavoidable" cleaning issues.

Environment councillors heard that issues such as fly tipping, street cleaning and dog fouling have become increasing problems which need to be addressed.

The council plans to save £7,000 by delivering refuse sacks to households once instead of twice a year, £30,000 by carrying out special collections on a Saturday, and £25,000 by restricting collections of refuse to only that which is put out at the kerbside.

Concerns were raised as to how the elderly and disabled would get rubbish to the kerbside, but members agreed with the report, which will now be decided at a meeting of the strategy committee on February 2.

Author of the report, Peter Tattersley, head of environmental services, said: "We put in the report what unavoidable issues such as street cleaning are costing the council, and what pressures we are under.

"The savings made by making changes to the refuse collections would help fund the additional cost we need to meet to keep up with these essential issues."

The report noted that the district has grown substantially in the past few years and will cost an extra £30,280 to increase resources accordingly, and an additional £2,000 is needed to supply bins for dog fouling.

It also said: "Clearance after gypsies are increasing. Estimated additional costs are difficult to judge due to unknown incidents, however clearance of illegal gypsy encampments costs, on average, £1,000 and the removal of dumped asbestos costs about £450 per incident."

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