We’re fully committed to working with the trade unions. Providing safe public services for the city is our number one shared priority.
Over the last six months we’ve undertaken a number of initiatives to make Cityclean a fairer and safer place to work and have sought to involve unions wherever possible and where change has been needed.
These initiatives are being led by the new Assistant Director of City Environment, strongly supported by her Director and the Chief Executive.
As a result of recent changes in senior management at Cityclean, some serious issues have been uncovered which have required urgent action. We reject any claims of inappropriate action or processes against staff.
Through the work of one of our new Cityclean managers it was learned that the safety standards required by the Traffic Commissioner – the independent regulator of the commercial road transport industry – were not being met. The standards relate to the vehicles used by the City Environment service and statutory staff checks.
As is our legal duty, we reported this immediately to the Traffic Commissioner and jointly we agreed the immediate actions needed to meet the expected standards.
Thank you to all Cityclean staff who have worked quickly and collaboratively to improve safety and service reliability. This is an ongoing team effort.
Our progress is being reported regularly to the Traffic Commissioner.