York Liberal Democrats are calling on Labour to rethink plans for streetlights that would see the Council stop routinely checking for faults.
The plans were agreed by the Labour Cabinet Member at a ‘behind-closed-doors’ decision session last month. The proposals would see the lighting maintenance contract, currently outsourced to AMEY, brought back ‘in-house’.
As part of the process the Council will stop routinely checking (scouting) for faulty street lighting and instead rely on the public to report any faults.
The Liberal Democrat Group has decided to ‘call-in’ the decision for further review amid growing concerns about the plans. The decision will be reassessed at a meeting of the Council’s Scrutiny Management Committee on April 15th.
Cllr Ann Reid, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Environmental Services who is calling-in the decision, commented:
“We have a number of concerns about these proposals. When the Council stopped routinely checking for faulty lighting about 15 years ago, some communities quickly reported faults, but in other areas lights were often left not working for months. No apparent research or consultation was carried out before this latest decision was taken on how it would work this time.
“The decision, which was made in secret, failed to present any business case as to how a council operated service would function or what capacity exists within the council to do the work. They seem to be relying on staff being TUPE’d across from the contractor, but this is not certain and it is unclear what pension and other costs this could involve. There was also no proper analysis of the service currently provided by the contractor or the service standards that the Council hopes to achieve.
“All in all, it looks like a rushed decision. This is perhaps not surprising as the Council left consideration of a replacement until just 10 days before
the current contract with AMEY was due to expire on the 31st March. The Council should not be rushing decisions or taking any risks with such a vital frontline service. This is why we have called-in the decision. We want some proper analysis to take place. With no contract in place, we will also be asking questions as to what is currently happening with streetlight maintenance.”
Last year Labour removed around 500 streetlights without earmarking money to replace them, meaning some residents went nearly six months without replacements being put in place.
NB. The Corporate Scrutiny Management Committee (CSMC) ‘Calling In’ Meeting will take place on Monday 15 April 2013 at 5.30pm.
Liberal Democrat Call-In: Street Lighting Maintenance Procurement. Reasons:
• It is a serious concern that the Council will stop routine checking (scouting) for faulty street lighting.
• The report does not refer to the experience the City had 15 years ago when it stopped scouting and found that, while some neighbourhoods were very good at reporting faults, in other areas lights were often not reported and therefore not working for weeks or months.
• A lack of public consultation to determine whether the capacity exists for resident reporting to work this time.
• No proper analysis of the quality of the service provided by the existing contractor or the service levels expected to be achieved by the Council.
• No business case for bringing the service in-house or examination of the capacity and expertise the Council has.
• No apparent measures in place in the event skilled staff can not be TUPE’d across and the Council needs to recruit and train staff.