Looking at how we run community services

Can we change how we provide care at home?

Currently we provide a care at home service to nearly 2000 older people. For around 1800 people this is provided by Council staff and for around 200 people we pay other organisations to provide this service. If we paid other organisations in the private and voluntary sectors to provide this service to everyone, we would save £1m. The care provided is independently inspected against the same standards no matter who provides it. Do people using these services mind whether the Council or another organisation provides the service? Can we use this approach too for the small number of people with learning disabilities living in Council-supported housing in Inverness? Elsewhere in Highland we pay other organisations to provide this service more cost effectively. This could save us £40,000.

Further Potential Savings to 2013 = £1.04m

Can we encourage a reduction in the amount of waste we produce and provide fewer bin collections?

By increasing the amount we recycle, we reduce the amount of waste which goes to landfill. Disposing of waste in a landfill site costs around £100 / tonne, of which £48 is landfill tax. This tax increases by £8 / tonne every year. The level of kerbside recycling has increased significantly over the past five years which has helped get us to a recycling rate of 35%. However we still provide a weekly collection for your non-recyclable waste (also known as ‘residual waste’). We seek your views on moving to alternate weekly collections for residual waste and recyclable materials, to encourage the reduction of waste and increase recycling. We currently spend £5.3 million on waste collection, and alternate weekly collections could save around £0.5 million.

Further Potential Savings to 2013 = £0.5m

Can we reduce our street lighting?

We have 48,850 street lights across the highlands, and currently spend £3.9m maintaining street lighting, traffic lights, and illuminated road signs. The electricity costs are £2m, and we are seeking your views on options for reducing our energy costs, these include:

• Dimming street lights between 12 midnight and 6am would involve fitting new lamps at a cost of £350 per unit. Overall costs to implement this proposal are estimated at £17m, with annual savings of up to £1m depending on the level of dimming.
• Turning off some street lights between 12 midnight and 6am, based on switching off selected lighting groups in rural areas with less than 100 columns, this would cost £50k to implement, with annual savings of up to £100k.
• Turning off all street lights between 12 midnight and 6am would cost £500k to implement, with annual savings of up to £1.1m. However a 100% switch off may not be achievable for safety reasons.
• Turning off every second street light would cost £200k to implement, and produce up to £1m in annual savings. There would be further costs for the removal of redundant lighting columns.

Further Potential Savings to 2013 = Up to £1.1m

How should the Council deal with enquiries for services and information?

It currently costs around £6.00 per contact to deal with enquiries face to face, £3.50 to deal with enquiries on the telephone and less than 50p for web site transactions. Last year the Council dealt with over 355,000 face to face contacts. Should the Council have fewer face to face contacts points and provide more services by telephone and the website, allowing more self service for customers?

Further Potential Savings to 2013 = £1m