Job cuts created litter woe

Wasn’t the financial budget put before councillors and agreed? Surely councillors know of the implications to what they vote on.

Ten litter pickers lost their livelihood in February because of the decisions they made.

I understand that books need to be balanced for the good of the public purse, but believe there needs to be strategy put in place before this goes ahead.

Coun Browne seems to be complaining about the mess he helped create.

The one thing that I will agree with is not only does the council fulfil their obligations, but people of this town take more responsibility for their actions.

It is some consolation that people are starting to realise what a good job these employees did. Sadly, it is after the horse has bolted.

People who I work with care about what they do and do their job to the best of their abilities and every now and again are allowed to take pride in what they have achieved.

It is in times like these that they don’t need to be looked upon by councillors or the general public as failures, when all along the people who should be holding their head with shame, either put the litter down or their peers make bad decisions that have a direct impact on the very people doing the work.

As for the council, this in my view has handled this very badly.

Mechanical sweepers are being asked to do two jobs. They are supposed to drive the sweeper and litter pick the street, something which is just not possible.

The moral is something of a nonentity following the job evaluation, which a lot of employees had to endure wage cuts. They made the decision to make redundant ten litter pickers without really thinking about any other possibilities. Management could have offered voluntary redundancy or early retirement but this was not discussed.

So please, councillors, if you are going to make decisions, make good ones or do your homework first.

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