The Mayor of Waterford has warned city councillors that tough decisions must be taken in light of a budget shortfall of over €5 million that will be faced in 2003 if wheelie-bin charges are not increased significantly.
A dispute is continuing over proposed increases in charges ahead of the publication of the City Manager's Book of Estimates next Monday.
With an almost 100 per cent increase in the household refuse charges in the city from €2.54 to €5 per wheelie-bin lift now imminent, the Waterford Council of Trade Unions (WCTU) is calling on people not to pay their refuse collection charges.
The trade union council's president, Mr Dick Roche, said the added cost was a double taxation and was intended to make waste collection more attractive to private investors.
The WCTU is to link up with residents' associations and other organisations to campaign to have the charges abolished. Similar campaigns have been mounted in Cork; Athlone, Co Westmeath; and in the Fingal County Council area.
"I heard councillors saying that local tax is good for local government. If they want funding they should be getting it from Dublin, out of Exchequer funds and not looking to the people of Waterford to provide assistance for local government," Mr Roche said.
However, the Mayor of Waterford, Cllr Oliver Clery, has stressed that the management of waste is the most serious expense facing the city as the council prepares its spending plans.
The council will meet on Monday to discuss the estimates, while a decision on the matter is to be made on January 13th.
The council is to close the landfill site at Kilbarry to commercial waste from the end of this month, which will lead to a loss of €3.2 million for the city during the year.
"We have to generate that money in some other manner. When this is added to the other increased costs such as benchmarking, insurance and statutory wage costs, we find we have a €5.3 million shortfall. We will have to make this up locally as we will receive no further subsistence from Government," Cllr Clery said.
He believed that once the City Manager, Mr Eddie Breen, gave a clear picture of the financial straits of the council, the estimates would be supported.
"This city has been through this sort of impasse in the past, and I am confident that we will get through it on this occasion as well," he said.
Meanwhile, Waterford County Council is to meet to discuss its Book of Estimates on January 10th.