Cllr Andy Mann, (Residents Association, Havering Park Ward) has hit out at the secretive manner in which Havering’s Cabinet member for StreetCare and the Council have acted with a £330k thousand saving in this years budget.
The savings proposal was put up by StreetCare as part of this year’s Council Tax proposals and despite numerous requests for information over the last 2 months to give more details, Council Officers have been both vague and slow in coming forward with the full details.
Maybe there was good reason for the secretive behaviour, as despite making press comments about how much extra they were investing in StreetCare, Cllr Mann has discovered the truth behind what services they are cutting to make their savings.
To make the £330k saving, StreetCare is getting rid of over 20 vehicles and trailers from its fleet, which in itself is not too bad; however many of them are front line street sweeping vehicles.
The full reduction of the fleet includes, 3 No, 3.5ton small cage tippers, 2 No, pedestrian applied sweepers, 5 No, small Mechanical sweepers, 3 No, linkpacker 7.5t vehicles, 4 No, small Trailers, 2, No Highways tippers.
Cllr Mann has now managed to extract the information from Officers after 2 months of waiting, he said “I can understand reducing the fleet by taking out a few trailers and a few older vehicles; however the reduction of seven sweeping machines and the three linkpackers, which are used for collecting fly tips is not acceptable. At no time during the scrutiny process of the Councils budget, was there any mention of the drastic cut in front line services”.
Cllr Mann, who was formerly the Cabinet Member for StreetCare at Havering was responsible for bring in many of the vehicles in one of the biggest fleet purchases in 20 years, with over £2 million spent across five years to upgrade the service an improve cleansing standards. It has been suggested that four new vehicles will be purchased, however this will only happen once the Council has finished its new StreetCare depot.
Cllr Mann continued, “It is time for the Administration to be honest and upfront with its plans, what is the point of trying to sneak through such savings in its budget without proper consultation, when was a single resident asked if they would like to see a reduction of street cleansing in the Borough, our own research shoes people want more of it, not less”
The savings proposal was put up by StreetCare as part of this year’s Council Tax proposals and despite numerous requests for information over the last 2 months to give more details, Council Officers have been both vague and slow in coming forward with the full details.
Maybe there was good reason for the secretive behaviour, as despite making press comments about how much extra they were investing in StreetCare, Cllr Mann has discovered the truth behind what services they are cutting to make their savings.
To make the £330k saving, StreetCare is getting rid of over 20 vehicles and trailers from its fleet, which in itself is not too bad; however many of them are front line street sweeping vehicles.
The full reduction of the fleet includes, 3 No, 3.5ton small cage tippers, 2 No, pedestrian applied sweepers, 5 No, small Mechanical sweepers, 3 No, linkpacker 7.5t vehicles, 4 No, small Trailers, 2, No Highways tippers.
Cllr Mann has now managed to extract the information from Officers after 2 months of waiting, he said “I can understand reducing the fleet by taking out a few trailers and a few older vehicles; however the reduction of seven sweeping machines and the three linkpackers, which are used for collecting fly tips is not acceptable. At no time during the scrutiny process of the Councils budget, was there any mention of the drastic cut in front line services”.
Cllr Mann, who was formerly the Cabinet Member for StreetCare at Havering was responsible for bring in many of the vehicles in one of the biggest fleet purchases in 20 years, with over £2 million spent across five years to upgrade the service an improve cleansing standards. It has been suggested that four new vehicles will be purchased, however this will only happen once the Council has finished its new StreetCare depot.
Cllr Mann continued, “It is time for the Administration to be honest and upfront with its plans, what is the point of trying to sneak through such savings in its budget without proper consultation, when was a single resident asked if they would like to see a reduction of street cleansing in the Borough, our own research shoes people want more of it, not less”
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