The leader of Westminster City Council has hinted at cutting street cleaning services for Downing Street amid a funding row with the government.
Cllr Paul Swaddle discussed reducing services to mitigate a £100 million reduction in the council's funding from central government. He said cutting street cleaning on Downing Street could be one way of reminding the Prime Minister of the important services Westminster provides.
‘Offer them two sweeps a week’
Speaking at a fringe event at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham on Monday, October 5, Cllr Swaddle said: “I don’t necessarily want to play all my cards, but we have ideas. You know, we could test lower levels of service in certain areas of London.
“If I could find a part of London that doesn’t have a lot of residents, but has a high level of service need—and I was to then test what, say, I don’t know, Downing Street, and to give them, instead of two sweeps a day, offer them two a week, and see how they feel about that level of service.
“So I think there are things that we can do. We’ve got to bring it home to people what the difference is, and bring it home to the rest of the country what we are doing.”
Funding cuts and legal challenge
A local party spokesperson said: “Cllr Swaddle was making a point, not announcing a plan. No one is switching off street cleaning in Downing Street, yet, but the fact it grabs attention shows how little Westminster’s workload is understood.”
The comments come as the local authority faces a £100 million reduction in its funding over the next four years as part of the central government’s Fairer Funding Review.
Several other councils are set to lose out on government grants under the review, including Kensington & Chelsea Council, which is set to lose £108 million, and Wandsworth, which is set to lose £84 million. The three London councils have been working together on a legal challenge to the review, arguing that the changes will put significant pressures on local services and residents.
Public consultation response
In a public consultation by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, 90 percent of respondents strongly supported the council’s plan to use the Sustainable Communities Act to press the government to reconsider the review.
Cllr Elizabeth Campbell, leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, said: “Almost 1,500 people took the time to share their views and I want to thank every one of them for getting involved. The scale of the response shows just how strongly our residents feel about this issue too, and how important it is that their voices are heard.
“I have been clear from the outset that we must continue to fight for a fairer funding settlement for Kensington and Chelsea. I am not prepared to implement the scale of service cuts and tax rises required without exhausting every avenue first to challenge the Government’s decision.
“We will now look carefully at what people have told us and I’ll discuss the findings and our proposed next steps with my leadership team before we go back to Government.”
