DESPITE being only months away, Swindon Borough Council says they still can’t say how many jobs will be lost by the transfer of services to newly formed parish councils.

The changes, set to be approved by the cabinet next week, will see four new authorities formed by April next year.

In June, cabinet members voted to approve the withdrawal of funding from next year for local services including grounds maintenance, litter collection, street cleaning, low level graffiti removal, maintenance and, crucially, any other services that the borough council decides it can no longer fund.

With the council offloading their responsibilities in these areas, it is clear that a significant number of staff will become surplus to requirements.

At the recent round of public meetings on parishing, a number of those staff expressed concern that they did not know what would happen to their jobs.

Coun Mary Martin, the cabinet member for communities, said: “It’s very difficult at this stage of the engagement period to have detailed discussions because there’s simply no idea, at this point, how things are going to turn out.

“There have been some high level discussions with staff who are being kept fully informed of the progress but we are at too early a stage to give any views on the impact on our staff.”

There are processes in place to protect the rights of workers where service provision is transferred but as it is not yet clear which services parish councils will choose to deliver, how, and from when, the applicability of the TUPE framework is unclear.

Gavin Brooks, regional organiser for the public services union UNISON, said: “We’re not sure Swindon Council has a workable plan for this yet.

“Untested parish councils would suddenly take on serious responsibilities for services.

"Dealing with private contractors, who will look to extract as much profit from any deal as possible, raises serious questions about what value for money residents would see.

"If the council wants to work with UNISON to come up with a plan that achieves value for money, good service, and secure employment for these workers, then we are keen to engage.

"Transferring management of these knowledgeable and experienced staff from one level of local authority to another isn’t itself a problem; but the council must make sure the end result is stable and secure."

The report that the cabinet is expected to approve says that parish councils could generate anywhere between £2.7 and £5 million in precepts.

Should the income end up being towards the lower end of that range then it would call into question the ability of the new authorities to maintain the full range of services and employ the full complement of staff currently working for the borough.

The leader of the Labour group on the council, Jim Grant, said: “I can only imagine the level of concern that our council officers must be feeling right now. I have every sympathy for them.

“When attending meetings on parishes with Conservative councillors I have sometime heard them say that they would like to TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings) council staff across to new parishes, and have sometimes heard them say that Parish Councils will be expected to contract the work. The fact is they haven’t made up their minds and it is creating great uncertainty amongst staff.

“If they don’t TUPE staff then it will rip up the knowledge base and skills Swindon Council has acquired in delivering local services and it will be replaced with a minimum wage, low quality contracted parish service.

“This is yet another example of the Conservative administration taking political decisions without any due regard for anybody other than themselves.”