Dear Member,
On Tuesday Dean Ingledew and Leith Penny announced their vision for the future of street management. The idea is to move to a single operative system. This will mean City Inspectors and City Guardians will have to compete for 65 to 70 posts out of the current 120. This is clearly an attack on the whole of the Street Management Service but leaks and off the cuff statements from those clearly in the know over the past six months or more indicate that there is a strand of opinion both at member and officer level that the Guardians in particular have served their purpose and are now expendable.
If the city council are allowed to reduce the numbers of on street staff by roughly half, then unless they also intend to cut the amount of enforcement by half there will be no time left in an operatives shift to complete the volume of work carried out by current City inspectors let alone any of the tasks which are currently undertaken by City Guardians. In a choice between issuing tickets or providing a visible presence I can imagine which way the council will go. Particularly in the current financial climate.
The sterling work carried out by the guardians will be quickly abandoned and the single operatives will soon find themselves becoming yet another revenue stream for the council, walking ticket machines. The Community based work currently undertaken by the Street Management Service, a more imaginative approach to dealing with Anti Social Behaviour than that promoted by the ‘ASBO bashers' is what will be lost.
HR Director Graham White has said that the changes will fall under phase 3 of the councils planned job cuts. Given the numbers already involved, the addition of street management to this phase will take the number of affected staff over 99. This means the council is now obligated to inform the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and move into a 90 day consultation cycle with staff.
Whilst negotiators will attend weekly meetings with HR and senior managers we need to put up strong resistance to these plans as a membership. As a UNION our primary focus must be to mobilise to resist these cuts. The city council must not be allowed to get away with removing an entire service which is essentially what these plans amount to.
I have called an urgent Mass Meeting for all Street Management and Premises Management staff for 4.00PM THURSDAY 11TH FEB IN THE CANTEEN. Time off to attend has been requested but make sure this date is put in your diary now. This meeting will be seeking a mandate from members for a programme of action to fight these cuts; suggestions to date include an immediate work to rule/withdrawal of good will, mass lobbies of Cabinet Meetings on 22nd Feb and 15th March,, and the outrageous Civic Reception on March 9th, and mounting a massive publicity campaign in the Community to mobilise the support that is out there for our Street Based Services. It is time to stand up and be counted - MAKE SURE YOU ATTEND AND YOUR VOICE IS HEARD!
Stephen Higgins
Branch Secretary
