The Douglas Borough Council budget for the coming financial year means increased taxes and lower services for the Isle of Man.
The British Broadcasting Corporation reports:
Bin collections in the Isle of Man’s capital are to be reduced from weekly to fortnightly services from April.
Douglas Council cuts bin collections to fortnightly services
At the same time, Manx Radio reports:
3.7 per cent [rates] increase from April.
Douglas Borough Council has approved a rate increase of 17p – up to 468 pence in the pound…The 3.7 per cent increase will come into force from April.
Douglas Council approves 17p rate rise
The BBC reported “Alternating between recycling and black bin collection services would save about £25,000 a year.” This is about the same amount of money wasted on legal fees by Douglas Council on losing a court case against a worker unable to attend work due to COVID-19 restrictions.
“Douglas ratepayers are being forced to pay higher rates for reduced services. Why are these rate increases and service cuts being sprung on Douglas ratepayers immediately after the local council elections?” asked Michael Josem of the Manx TaxPayers’ Alliance.
4 April 2022 Update: A social media post from Douglas Borough Council claims that the quote from BBC’s report (quoted above) is incorrect. Douglas Borough Council says, “The implementation of fortnightly collections is not being implemented from April, which was incorrectly reported, but later this year.” As of today, the BBC does appear to have not issued any updates to its story quoted above.