Council plans to save £2,000 by changing staff holiday arrangement over Christmas

At the full Council meeting on the 27th July, Members are being asked to approve proposals to save around £2,000 by changing staff holiday arrangements over the Christmas break, starting from Christmas 2011.  The proposal is to ask employees to take two days of their holiday entitlement at Christmas which would allow the authority to close its administrative offices.

The key services of waste collection and street cleaning would not be affected and the Worcestershire Hub at Kidderminster Town Hall would be open on normal working days during the period between Christmas Day and New Year. However other offices would close in order to save heating and lighting costs at what is traditionally a period of very low demand for public access to other services.

The proposals come as part of ongoing savings reviews in the face of government unding for the Council being reduced by £1.2 million this year. The grant reduction increases to £2 million in 2012/13 and the council is reviewing how savings can be achieved whilst limiting the impact on frontline services.

Councillor John Campion, Leader of Wyre Forest District Council said

“Closing offices in a traditionally quiet time makes good business sense on more than one front.  Primarily this is another example of us changing processes to save money rather than cutting services.

For many of our service areas, the period between Christmas and New Year is a quiet time so there are opportunities to reduce building related costs by keeping only key services operational.

We’ve consulted employees on changing the present Christmas holiday arrangements and the feedback favours closing the offices for the period between Christmas Day and New Year. Employees will need to take up to two days annual leave to accommodate this.”

Date of issue -  8th July 2011