Cardiff: Plans for black bag collections every three weeks

Black bin bags could be collected once every three weeks in Cardiff as part of the council's plan to save tens of millions of pounds.

Higher parking charges, charging for garden waste collections and increasing the cost of school meals are also included, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The council has announced it needs to bridge a £30m budget gap.

A public consultation on the proposals will run from 8 January to 4 February.

The budget consultation document published on 2 January states that the council is also proposing a council tax increase of 3%.

The council's cabinet member for finance, Chris Weaver, said it faced a "financial storm", as the 4.1% uplift from the Welsh government is less than half of what the council received for its 2023/24 budget.

Current demand on social care is the biggest driver of Cardiff council's budget gap.

The number of people accessing the council's advice services has doubled since before the pandemic and the number of rough sleepers in the city has more than tripled since 2022/23.

Some of the other key budget proposals being made by the council include restricting opening times for hubs and libraries, increasing the cost of hiring sports pitches, increasing the price of the burials and cremation service, and reducing street cleaning and the maintenance of parks and green spaces.

Mr Weaver said: "We will do everything we can to protect social services and the most vulnerable in our communities.

"But there's little doubt that we now need to look at some harder-to-face options to bridge the gap.

"There are some extremely tough choices which will need to be made, which is why it's so important residents take part in the budget consultation and tell us what really matters to them."

Cardiff council's budget proposals will be looked at in closer detail by a number of the local authority's scrutiny committees next week.