CLAIMS that Blackburn Town Hall cleaners are paid less than £3 an hour and have to provide their own materials have been denied by private cleaning contractors.

The contract was handed to Manchester-based We Are Cleaning four years ago under new compulsory competitive tendering laws.

It will soon be due for renewal and the company is among five invited to tender for the new contract starting in November.

Coun Don Rishton told a meeting of the council that employees were getting under £3 an hour and questioned how the contract matched up to the council's anti-poverty strategy.

Coun Tony Harding said he had talked to a cleaner who said they had to provide their own cleaning materials.

But Conservative councillor John Williams claimed the people he had talked to were satisfied with the arrangements which equalled those they would get anywhere else.

Council leader Coun Malcolm Doherty promised the council would try to get information on pay and conditions.

But he added: "Anybody who thinks the people cleaning this town hall are happy have not been speaking to those I have spoken to.

"The turnover has been absolutely horrendous. In the last 12 months, I have had six different people cleaning my office. It is a fact that a high turnover shows people are not happy."

We Are Cleaning spokesman John Wolman dismissed the cleaning materials claim as "rubbish" saying vans regularly delivered materials to the town hall.

He added that staff were paid £2.60 an hour, plus 40p attendance allowance and received free transport to and from work.

"We think that is equivalent to £3.50 per hour. And, unlike many other companies, we pay holiday pay."

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