Row erupts over street cleaners

OLDHAM’S street cleaners are at the centre of a political row about the council’s recruitment freeze to help plug a £21 million budget hole.

Labour claims numbers have fallen from 105 in April, 2007 — the year before the the Liberal Democrats swept to power — to 87 this April.

Figures obtained by a Freedom of Information request also show that the number of agency street cleaners used by the council increased from 39 to 61 in the same period.

Oldham’s opposition leader Councillor Jim McMahon says this has hit front-line services and created a two-tier workforce, with staff on different terms and conditions. He also claims that officers have twice pushed for more staff, but have been refused by a council vacancy panel.

“Street cleaners in Oldham do an excellent job but this is despite, and certainly not because of, their political bosses,” added Councillor McMahon. But the Lib-Dems argue that the total number of street cleaners has increased from 144 to 148. The department is being re-organised, with the introduction of area-based teams. They say permanent staff will be taken on after an evaluation of who is needed where.

Councillor Mark Alcock, Cabinet member for environment and infrastructure, explained that it could have cost more money to take on permanent staff before this was completed, leaving the council facing redundancy costs for workers it then did not need.

He added: “This council was left with a £21 million budget deficit by the Labour administration. As part of the process of addressing that, the Liberal Democrat administration has to bite the bullet. We had to have a recruitment freeze so the £21 million deficit did not go up to £22 or £23 million.

“People are telling us that under this administration the borough is cleaner. A MORI survey has also told us Oldham is cleaner. That’s not good enough. We, and myself personally, are going to make sure we clean the borough up as best we can. People are going to see a big difference.

“One of the things we are looking at is increasing the number of enforcement officers so we can stop people fly-tipping. It’s costing more than £2 million a year to clean up after fly-tippers.”

However, his opposite number, Councillor Shoab Ahktar insisted: “The figures speak for themselves and this time the Lib-Dems can not hide from the facts.

“They are running front line services in to the ground and treating staff extremely badly.”