Conservatives in South Cambridgeshire have success in getting the Lib Dem administration at South Cambridgeshire District Council to finally agree to publish performance data from their four-day working week trial.
Conservative councillors in South Cambs have been fighting a long, hard battle to gain access to four-day week data for both councillors and residents.
Council performance data is being sent to central government every week under the Best Value Notice – issued to the Lib Dem-run council following concerns that the four-day working week trial is failing to deliver value for money for taxpayers.
The Lib Dem administration has been operating a four-days’ work for five-days’ pay trial for over 470 desk-based staff at South Cambs since January 2023 – spending £3.3 million of taxpayers’ money a year to give staff an extra day off each week.
Conservatives and residents alike are now relieved this battle has been won and we are finally getting to see the Lib Dem-run council’s performance data the four-day week.
Cllr Heather Williams, Leader of the Conservative Opposition at South Cambs, welcomed the news:
“I am pleased that our efforts to get this information in the public domain have been successful. It is a sad time, however, for those of us at the council who have had to fight so hard for something which should be a basic transparency issue.
“It feels more and more a battle for information, a battle to be able to hold the administration to account, and a battle to maintain the fundamental right to information in order to do your job representing residents.
“I am pleased that this information is out there – good or bad, we all need to see what is going on. The attempt to frustrate us from seeing this information reflects the sorrowful state of local government in South Cambridgeshire.
“I hope that because of the actions we have taken, the Lib Dems will think twice before trying to withhold information from councillors and the public again.”
The administration’s data can be found on the council’s website here.
