The 4-day week at Lib Dem-run South Cambridgeshire District Council has been controversial from the very start.
Residents have been paying council staff not to work since January 2023 – with over 700 council staff being paid 37 hours for 32 hours work each week at the taxpayers’ expense.
The view of the Lib Dem administration is that people don’t care as long as the council maintains the performance of its services – which include collecting bins and determining planning applications.
Indeed, when the council’s Scrutiny and Overview Committee considered the results of the 4-day week trial on Monday night, the Lib Dem Leader of the Council Cllr Bridget Smith went as far to say “people weren’t interested” in filling out the public consultation, which ran in January.
However, Cllr Heather Williams, Leader of the Conservative Opposition at the council, said that “people do care”, saying “lots of people took the time to fill in [this] survey”.
“We as councillors have spent the time to go through the documents. It’s not a laughing matter – it’s really important to people,” Cllr Williams continued.
The open public consultation would seem to validate what the Conservatives are saying.
The consultation, which was completed by over 1,000 people, showed that 77% of residents did not support the 4-day week – with resident satisfaction declining in 14 out of 14 service areas.
Similarly, of the businesses operating in South Cambridgeshire who completed the survey, 88% did not support the 4-day week – including a shocking 81% of businesses not satisfied with the Planning service after the 4-day week trial.
So, do residents care about the 4-day week at South Cambridgeshire District Council, which has seen them pay council staff not to work – all while their council tax and rents have gone up?
A resounding yes.
That’s bad news for the Lib Dem administration – who will be turning a blind eye to public outrage if they vote to become a permanent 4-day week employer on Thursday.
