Council to save 40 jobs in street cleaning plan

Around 40 jobs have been saved by Cannock Chase Council under plans to establish its own street cleaning team, it emerged today.

Council leader George Adamson has announced proposals to take on dozens of staff to tend streets, parks and cemeteries across the district. It comes after contractor Fountains Group, which ran the service until January, went into administration.

Workers who lost their jobs there will be at the front of the queue for the new posts, Councillor Adamson said today.

Forty-two staff based at Ash Park in Hyssop Close were made redundant but now stand to regain jobs with the council. If approved as expected at a meeting of the cabinet later this month, the council will take control of the Streetscene service for the next 18 months.

Future provision will be subject to a review.

Councillor Adamson said today: "This is the sensible thing to do. We have had a couple of private contractors and the last one was doing a decent job, but then went into administration.

"We are looking to take it in-house and steady the ship so we can provide a continuous level of service.

"The people who were made redundant in January are local people and hopefully this will mean they can get back to work. We think we will need a similar level of staffing as the contractor.

"We have been let down by private contractors."

The proposals were leaked in the council's forward plan for the next three months.

A report outlining the plans in full will be presented to members of the cabinet on March 15.

The forward plan stated the cabinet will be asked to "agree to the provision of the Streetscene service in-house for a period of up to 18 months, whilst a full evaluation and appraisal of future service provision is undertaken".