Pay deal offered to Gosport's refuse collectors after disruption to bin collections

During a recent council meeting, Conservative councillor Tony Jessop questioned the council leader about the disruption to the waste collection service carried out by Urbaser Limited. He said there was little information available on council websites, leaving residents in Grange ward and Elson ward confused and concerned about their collections.

In response, Liberal Democrat leader Cllr Peter Chegwyn acknowledged that waste collection issues are a nationwide problem. He pointed out that the current challenges were made worse by recent changes in waste collection rounds, which had been discussed during the previous administration led by the Conservative party.

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“The contract with Urbaser was appointed again by the Conservatives when they ran the council – part of the problems relates to that contract, in particular the pay”, he added.

“It’s not the nicest job in all weathers, they are paid often the minimum wage so it’s no wonder why some staff have left and gone off to other jobs because they could get more stacking shelves.

“There is a problem in recruiting and retaining staff, Urbaser recruited 12 extra drivers, 11 of 12 left within a matter of weeks.”

To address the issue, Cllr Chegwyn revealed that negotiations had taken place between Urbaser and council officers.

He added: “The outcome of negotiations is that we have made an offer which we think staff will accept increasing pay.

“We’re not going to wait for national agreements, staff have been offered a paltry four per cent nationally at a time when inflation under this Conservative government is at eight per cent.

“We do believe that staff deserve a fairer wage for a job that they do, thankfully we can sort the cost though the budget because this administration is prudent enough to include money in the contract reserve for a situation like this.”

Additionally, the leader confirmed that extra resources would be available during the transition to new teams and routes until they are fully established. The cost of the pay offer remains undisclosed.