Council job cuts decision due (From Harrow Times)

Harrow Council job cuts decision due

5:29pm Wednesday 10th October 2012 in News By David Hardiman, Reporter

Councillors will decide whether to stick to their plan to cut more than 50 jobs from the authority’s highways and environmental services tomorrow.

Harrow Council plans to merge parts of the highways, community safety, and public realm departments – which run services such as road maintenance, licensing and street cleaning – in its new Public Realm Integrated Services Model (PRISM), with the loss of 53 mostly managerial posts.

The plans, which include axing four refuse vehicles, are predicted to save £1.85million in the next two years, although it could cost the council £1.15m in redundancy settlements as jobs are cut.

Harrow UNISON hit out at the plans last week, claiming the project would “seriously affect the council’s ability to effectively deal with the increasing refuse situation” and a council scrutiny committee decided unanimously last Monday that there has been “insufficient consideration of legal advice” when the plan was agreed in September.

That means the proposals have been referred back to the council’s cabinet, who will decide tomorrow night whether to stick to their original plan or seek more legal advice before going ahead with the job cuts.

Union leaders from GMB and UNISON responded to a consultation on the plans over the summer by questioning the ability of senior management to carry out the reorganisation of services and suggested the number of posts could be reduced without merging departments.