PLANS to axe 25 street cleaning staff as part of the squeeze on public spending have been dropped by Luton Borough Council.
We revealed last month how 25 staff from the Street Services department, who played a key part in clearing Luton’s roads and pavements during December’s heavy snow, were going to be made redundant.
But in a U-turn, the council now says the plans have been withdrawn.
Lib Dem group leader David Franks said he was grateful to the Herald&Post for highlighting the issue.
He said: “I am really grateful to The Herald & Post.
“The front page story which exposed the plan to sack 25 street cleaning staff undoubtedly played a big part in forcing the Labour council to scrap this crazy idea.
“The cleanliness of Luton’s streets dramatically improved when the then Liberal Democrat administration at the Town Hall boosted the numbers of cleaners in 2004.
“In contrast, Labour chopped £78,000 from this budget last year and planned a massive near half million pounds cut now. We do not want to go back to the bad old days of rubbish lying around for weeks and ugly fly posting all over the town centre.”
A spokesman for Luton Borough Council said: “Officers had put forward plans to save £480,700 by making changes to street cleansing arrangements, including reducing the size of the town centre cleansing team by 20 per cent.
However, executive members requested officers to review the potential impact this would have on the service and asked for further options to be investigated.
As a result of this request, the proposed reductions have been withdrawn, except for minor changes to allow five of the potentially affected staff who requested voluntary redundancy to leave.”