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Plans to axe street cleaning jobs in Dundee are pushed through

The council claims it can maintain services by introducing more efficient ways of working.
The council claims it can maintain services by introducing more efficient ways of working.

Plans to axe street cleaning jobs in Dundee have been approved despite councillors being told standards could slip as a result.

Dundee City Council announced last month that is to cut 45 jobs from its street cleaning and open spaces department as it bids to claw back the £28 million of savings it must find over the next two years.

The 45 posts are expected to be lost over the next three years through natural turnover or voluntary early retirement rather than compulsory redundancies.

Members of trade union Unite, which represents the affected workers, protested outside the City Chambers ahead of Monday’s meeting.

Local union branch deputy convener Joe Young warned plans to cut the number of street sweepers combined with planned reductions in wheelie bin collections could lead to an upsurge in fly-tipping.

“There is a feeling they are trying to do too much too early. There will definitely be more fly-tipping because of the changes to bin collections and it will be much worse without street sweepers,” he said.

Policy and resources convener Ken Guild said the job losses would help the council save £1.4 million a year by increasing the efficiency of the street sweeping service without affecting the service.

“We have, at the minimum, to find £28 million of savings within the next two years,” he said.

“This is a review by looking at a 20-year-old work plan and trying to find savings by upgrading and updating that plan.”

But environment director Ken Laing admitted there is no guarantee services will be maintained at their current level.

Questioned by Labour councillor Richard McCready over whether people would notice any change, he said Dundee is “almost at the top of the Premier League” in terms of cleanliness.

“We want to stay at the top in terms of our performance and I would hope there is no perceived difference but I cannot say that won’t be the case, only that we will do everything we can to maintain standards.”

A motion by Mr McCready to carry out a consultation into the proposed changes was defeated by 18 votes to 11.

Mr Guild accused the Labour group of “losing touch with the reality of the situation” by pressing for further consultation.

“We have presented a well thought out and practical means of saving the council a large sum of money while having as high a level of service as possible,” he said.

“Labour would rather do nothing but go away and talk to somebody else they are losing touch with reality.”

Mr McCready said the council should have nothing to fear from consultation.