The Isle of Wight Council and Island Roads have agreed initial savings worth more than £11million following a renegotiation of the highways PFI contract, which will see rubbish bins emptied less often and fewer grass cuttings across the Island.
The arrangement, which started on 1st April, is a £600,000-a-year cost reduction over the next 18 years of the agreement, or £11.4 million in total when index-linked.
The council, supported by Jasmine Consulting, is continuing to work with Island Roads to identify further savings that can be implemented from April 2020. When completed, the total savings over the lifetime of the contract could total around £40million.
Just last night a disgruntled dog walker in Cowes took to Twitter to express her disgust at the state of dog poo bins at the nearby recreation ground. It appears the bin has not been emptied for sometime, but the Isle of Wight Council have since confirmed that the bin has now been emptied.
@islandecho @iwcponline @GREATBritain @iwight Tonight I walked my puppy with daughter in law & her 3 dogs at Cowes rec, Park road & had to put a poo in the poo bin by place Rd entrance & AGAIN overflowing on the floor. You want us to use them EMPTY THEM. KIDS PLAY UP THERE🐕💩💩 pic.twitter.com/tqM1cAVbVA
— Sharon Cade (@shazyiw) April 17, 2019
Councillor Ian Ward, cabinet member for infrastructure and transport, said:
“This very successful contract has transformed our Island roads since it started six years ago, and it will continue to do so. It has delivered some of the best roads in the country and, with these savings, it represents even better value for money for Islanders.
“The savings do not affect road resurfacing and footpath improvements plus high priority maintenance and road safety works, which will continue as required.
“It does however mean people will find, some aspects of maintenance and services reduced for example, grass verges will not be cut as often to encourage biodiversity, and roadside bins will not be emptied as frequently. However, these changes are an evolution of the original contract as we have discovered the service was better than needed in some areas.”
As revealed by Island Echo yesterday, the arrangement’s implementation means that CCTV control room operators are being axed. CCTV cameras across the Isle of Wight will no longer be monitored around the clock, raising concerns for public safety.
5 members of staff are to be cut from the CCTV control room with a similar number in the area of street cleaning and also grass cutting.
In all areas, Island Roads is looking at redeployment and other avenues to keep any compulsory redundancies to a minimum. The council has also agreed to look favourably on applications from those affected by redundancy for any jobs it advertises. In practice this means, that if the person meets a council job specification, the authority will guarantee an interview.
Service director at Island Roads, Steve Ashman, said:
“While under this new agreement, we will be providing a reduced level of service, we are confident residents will continue to receive an extensive, high quality programme of highways improvement and maintenance.”
Just make the people who don’t bother paying their council tax empty the bins and cut the grass instead of fining them. Problem solved.
Brilliant! And there was me thinking people who dont bother paying council tax, could be imprisoned for not paying Council Tax. Perfect solution
Pay more and get less again and again
How much have they paid Jasmine Consulting for something the Council employees should be doing.Why on earth is Mr Ashman the regeneration officer getting over 100 k plus pension when all he suggests is to build more houses without any infrastructure.Its more pay for less service.
Is that the bloke that works or worked for the council, then hires himself back to the council as a consultant at an inflated and always paid cost??
Bins are often overflowing already !!!
What is going on? Are Isle of Wight Council charging more for less services to recoup the cost of their mistakes, for instance the disastrous unnecessary floating bridge replacement? And stop behaving as if it’s alright – people can see right through the spin.
Correct me if i’m wrong, wasn’t the pfi a grant from central government to the council and in turn island roads for just that, the islands roads, street furniture etc?? A deal was done at the time and island roads said it would deliver it for the £25m. If now they can do it for far less then who ever agreed it on the councils behalf needs to re evaluate their ability to price a job for being ripped off in the first place. Secondly, have the council actually paid the £25m to island roads to be able to re negotiate the price during the job or are they paying in stages? Now the price has been dropped, dose this mean the materials used for the roads be of a cheaper nature leading to crumbling roads in the next 10 years instead of the 25 to 30 years as promised at the start of the scheme?
The people are being shafted yet again
Maybe get rid of all those pen pushers. It’s a joke, so many things outsourced. Lots of managers with nothing to manage.
With minimal police presence the CCTV operation is vital to control & monitor crime particularly youth offenders & anti social behaviour. This service should definitely not be cut under any circumstances
So, tourism is the big business on the Island? Visitors will now be greeted with overflowing rubbish bins blowing litter down the streets, dog bins full of poop and smelling in the summer weather and then unable to pull safely out of junctions due to overgrown hedges etc!!! What a lovely advert for the Island and its residents!!! Why not cut the top peoples wages instead, or get people carrying out community service on it huh?
Asking someone who’s broken a law of this green and pleasant land to empty litter bins?? Good god no, that would surly contravene a ‘right’ of their’s somewhere, and they’ed end up suing for thousands of pounds. Plus the council would never be able to afford the wage of the persons watching over them.
So the Floating monstrosity can cost millions for the biggest cock up ever and we get the have Less services. . ? Paying for your incompetence? ?
Many grass verges on estates etc are adjoining peoples homes. They should be offered for sale to the homeowner and, then incorporated into their garden if bought. IF not, with some of the larger verges, a home could be built on them or a garage to raise funds for the council to help pay for more poor immigrants to live in this country, as that is why more funds are needed. Think of the grateful joy of these people and the loss of some tatty grass verge covered in black bags of dog doo, will be a small price to pay.
Typical tory attitude feather there own nest comes to mind
Don’t you lot of suits sitting in your luxury chairs realise what with all the houses your building and cutting down on public services you are ruining this island if people want to see concrete buildings in their holiday they might as well save the ferry money and go to Milton Keynes what is happening with all the council you are taking from us?
Are we not going to get a council tax refund for not having public services? That they discontinued ? Our Police ♀️ contribution has gone up ! But no more police on our streets ! Let’s cut the ctv camera’s in our towns ! But I bet the won’t cut the ctv camera’s in the car parks to make us pay more !! And how long before the floating embarrassment prices go up ?
I don’t think there is a road sweeper in Sandown because there has been glass all over the pavement in Melville at on the corner of Royal rd since New Year Eve. If my dog gets a cut paw the council will be getting a vets bill.
All i can say is corruption
How on Earth can they say the resurfacing of the footpaths has been an improvement? All the ones done in my area of Freshwater, a little while ago, are now being invaded by weeds pushing up through the wafer thin layer of resurfacing. What a total waste of money!