Council works to minimise local impact of national strike

Herefordshire Council states that it will provide most of its services during tomorrow’s national industrial action by unions.

The one-day strike, on Tuesday, March 28, is in protest at government proposals to reform the local government pension scheme.

“This is a national dispute and not one over which the council has any direct influence,” said David Johnson, the Council’s Head of Human Resources.

“Our objective has been to concentrate on planning locally how we may keep the impact of the dispute to a minimum and try to ensure that essential services are there for the most vulnerable members of our community”.

All waste collection and recycling services should be operating normally, together with home care and meals on wheels services.

All libraries, museums, arts facilities and tourist information offices are expected to be open, together with housing advice teams, private sector housing, services to business, trading standards, environmental health, building control, conservation, emergency planning, animal welfare, markets and fairs service and all corporate services.

Bereavement services are also expected to be operating normally.

The Highways and Transportation service will provide emergency cover, including winter maintenance if necessary, and will maintain operational road repairs.

The council’s INFO shops should be open in Hereford, Ross-on-Wye, Leominster, Bromyard and Kington (the Ledbury office is not expected to open).

Revenues and benefits, including council tax services, will not operate during the day of industrial action.

Some schools are expected to close, and these are notifying parents directly and through local radio announcements.

Social care children’s services are working to maintain a reasonable level of service but Hollybush Family Centre will be closed.

Fostering and Adoption services will be open. There will be some disruption to services for adults with learning disabilities.

The council will communicate details of which services are likely to be affected and what alternative arrangements might be put in place.

The information will be made available to local media. Use the link to access further information on the services affected by the industrial action.

“Although we will be encouraging members of staff to come to work on the day and help ensure that as many services as possible are available for Herefordshire people, there will inevitably be pressure on resources, but we are hopeful that most of the services that local people expect from their council will be there for them,” added David.

The government says that its review of the local government pension scheme forms part of their wider agenda to deal with increased life expectancy, changing demographics and rising pension costs.

Changes being introduced in 2006 aim to safeguard the scheme, to ensure it remains affordable and sustainable to scheme employers and to local taxpayers, whilst being fair to existing and future local authority employees.