The continued trial of a four-day working week at South Cambridgeshire District Council has met with backlash from local Conservatives.
Government ministers have ordered councils to stop four-day working week trials and ban any new experiments, even threatening financial consequences for councils who do not comply.
After starting a three month trial for all desk-based staff in January, the council analysed performance data and decided to extend the trial for another year until March 2024 - expanding it to include all staff, including bin collection teams.
Local government minister Lee Rowley MP has twice written to the council's Lib Dem administration and ordered them to "end the experiment immediately".
Cllr Heather Williams, leader of the Conservative opposition at South Cambs, said: "There is a real risk now that the council will see financial consequences, meaning residents will suffer as a consequence of the Lib Dems’ social experiment.
"We still have not been allowed a vote as opposition councillors. I don’t believe that the risks attached to the four-day week, both financially and reputationally, are being properly considered by the Lib Dem administration.
"They need to stop and they need to stop now."
Conservative South Cambs MP Anthony Browne has also opposed the trial, and has launched a survey to gauge the community's opinion.
He said: "It's crucial that the voices of South Cambridgeshire residents are heard and considered in such impactful decisions affecting our community and public services."
To take part in the survey go to https://www.anthonybrowne.org/four-day-week-survey.
However South Cambs district council leader Cllr Bridget Smith has defended the trial, which she said has seen performance generally maintained, and in some cases improved, with a reduction in sickness rates, staff turnover and complaints about services.
She said: "Every decision we make centres on what is best for the communities who elect us.
"Our offices are open five days a week, and we can be contacted 24 hours a day, seven days a week in an emergency like during last week’s flooding.
"Local councils should always be free to decide the best way to deliver services for the residents they represent.
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"We are best placed to make these decisions in our area, which has high private sector wages and housing costs, making it very difficult to attract and retain talented staff we need to deliver for residents and businesses.
"Before we announced the trial, we were spending about £2 million a year on 23 agency staff who were covering vacancies - often in specialist roles where the private sector pays more. This bill could be halved if all the agency posts were filled permanently.
"We have now filled 13 of these posts - mainly in the planning service - that are notoriously 'hard to fill'.
At the end of the trial, the evidence will be presented to residents and businesses, and all councillors will decide whether to continue with a four-day week.
The trial has been supported by Cambridge City Council, which shares some services with South Cambs such as planning and waste.
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