Lib Dems at South Cambridgeshire District Council have made their highly controversial 4-day week permanent – despite 77% of residents and 88% of businesses not supporting the move.
Lib Dem-run South Cambridgeshire District Council has been running a 4-day week since January 2023 – and today all councillors have finally, for the first time, had the chance to vote on whether to make the 4-day week permanent.
The Lib Dems unanimously supported the move, with the Conservatives unanimously opposing the 4-day week – raising severe concerns over the misuse of taxpayers’ money.
The Lib Dem council will now permanently pay its staff 37 hours for just 32 hours work per week – all at the expense of the taxpayer, who are set to lose millions of pounds a year in unsalaried hours.
Several Conservative councillors criticised the lack of transparency surrounding the move to a 4-day week, since the policy was nowhere to be seen in the Lib Dem manifesto during the 2022 council elections – just four months before the Lib Dem Cabinet first considered trialling a 4-day week.
Cllr Graham Cone, Deputy Leader of the Conservative Opposition, questioned whether productivity had increased at all – with the 13.5% reduction in weekly hours being more than made up by a 15% increase in staffing numbers over the duration of the 4-day week trial.
Cllr Heather Williams, Leader of the Conservative Opposition, said that resident satisfaction with council services was down across the board and that – in the context of increased council tax and rents – the 4-day week was unacceptable for a majority of South Cambridgeshire’s residents.
“We have a choice. We can show residents that we support them – it’s a slap in the face when people are taking on more work because of increased council tax while their money is spent to give people a day off every week. It’s not right, it’s not fair, and there is no reliable proof that it works. If this goes ahead, trust between the council and residents could be broken for good. This has got to stop,” Cllr Williams said during the meeting.
The council’s Employment and Staffing Committee will now implement the Productivity Policy – a process that was severely questioned for the lack of scrutiny over how the 4-day week will work in practice at the council.
The public consultation reported residents’ serious concerns about the council’s deteriorating services.
One anonymous business revealed to councillors their extremely negative experience since the council has fallen to a 4-day week:
“Our experience is it’s extremely difficult to get any kind of response from Officers. I’ve even had the Contact Centre tell me not one person was available in the Planning Department (where there were no meetings taking place) because they couldn’t get through to anyone on their mobiles.
They continued: “I cannot tell you the hours I’ve wasted trying to get a response from SCDC recently. It’s exhausting!
“We work with Councils all over the country and SCDC are particularly bad with getting officer response.”
Terminal problems like this look set to become the norm for Lib Dem-run South Cambridgeshire District Council – who have railroaded the council into a 4-day week for 5 days pay without any mandate at all from the residents paying for it.
After the meeting, Cllr Heather Williams said:
“I’m saddened – but not surprised – that Lib Dems have done this in the face of opposition from residents. We will not stop campaigning against this scandalous waste of public money. And let us be clear – it is the Lib Dems who voted for this today. It is the Lib Dems who are responsible for this. And it is the Lib Dems who need to be stopped at the next election.”
