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Allan Brigham
Allan Brigham
Allan Brigham

Roadsweeper, Cambridge

This article is more than 21 years old
Allan Brigham
Salary: £15,730

I feel positive, but still can't quite believe it. Our service has got better. We merged parks and street cleaning during the last year. The cigarette packet which blows from the street on to the park is now our concern, not someone else's. We cover the cleaning of all open spaces and the gardeners can get on with horticulture.

I now go to work and hear team members putting forward ideas on how we can improve things. We have a section meeting once a month. All the guys in my team attend.

A few weeks back, when eastern England froze over, the team still got to work at 6am - including Mark, who has to cycle 25 miles to work because he cannot afford a Cambridge house - and gritting pavements began immediately. We didn't wait for managers to tell us. You cannot sweep an iced pavement.

There are now six teams in the city, based on the political wards. We call them "tidy teams", which is a bit corny, but I think it is right. One aim is to ensure local people know who is responsible for their neighbourhood. We try and build up community links. I've talked to schools about litter and recycling. The aim is a clean, green and safe city. Clean streets, quick removal of graffiti, make a place feel safer and more comfortable.

We had an outside audit commission team making a CPA (comprehensive performance assessment) inspection some weeks back. It spent a day looking at the street scene and came out with a positive report.

Mergers sound easy but it is a real challenge integrating two sections who were working under three different contracts - particularly if you are dealing with people who felt their ideas and commitment had been ignored for 10 years. It has worked because the director of services has put a lot of effort into involving the staff in the decisions, and using their positive response and because of my GMB union branch secretary, who is brilliant at bringing forward solutions, rather than just problems.

We did have a one-day strike of manual workers this year in Cambridge over pay. People think public service workers are always on strike. This was my first in 20 years. For most of us it was scary. We had not done it before and no one knew who would or would not turn up for work, but there was a 98% turnout, which indicates the strength of feeling. We lost a day's pay, but we got a better offer - 3.5% instead of 3%.

There is a meeting between frontline staff (myself and two colleagues), councillors, the chief executive and senior managers to talk with consultants, who are validating the new process. We've never been involved before. You feel more valued when you are. But under the law, the council may still have to go out and invite private firms to tender.

I am delighted the government has finally honoured its pledge to end two-tier workforces. We do not mind competing on quality, it's cheapness we objected to. At one time under CCT (compulsory competitive tendering) we had three tiers in Cambridge - some of us on original contracts, others on inferior later models, and others just engaged on a daily basis from an agency as casuals with no rights or pension benefits. Some began by being employees of the council, then of a contractor, and then of subcontractors. Being an in-house team, as we are, makes us more accountable to councillors. That is the right line of accountability.

The CCT that the Tories introduced and Labour continued for two years was like living under siege. I went through the process twice in eight years - constant threats of redundancy, increased hours, cuts to pay.

I was scarred by it because I was a union rep negotiating through it. I am amazed and happy to come to work and find it is no longer happening and I can get on with the job.

Conditions are far, far better than they were under the Tories, but Labour has failed to win many friends because every change in legislation appears to have been so grudging. I don't think they understand the pain that most manual public service staff went through under CCT. It was degrading being threatened with pay cuts, never offered praise when it was due, never involved in decision making, never offered training because there was no money in the budget. It leaves you frustrated and angry. And it is no way to encourage commitment to delivering quality public services.

I feel CCT was the crudest management tool imaginable: it wasted years in delivering public services, and wasted lives for those involved at the sharp end. Those were negative years, and part of me feels I did waste my life, but these are comments I can make because the progress we are making now shows how things can be done so much better.

Public voices: March 21 2002

Road sweeper, Cambridge
Salary: £15,500

Locally it has been a good year. There's a new sense of optimism. For the first time for a decade I feel positive about the local scene.

We've had a constructive best value review. Managers and GMB union representatives, who had been sitting in separate compounds virtually at war, have come together. We spent two days airing grievances, establishing common values, and creating a framework that has allowed continuing dialogue.

The siege mentality generated by the Tories and their oppressive CCT (compulsory competitive tendering) process has lifted. We've ended a contract culture in which you only did precisely what was specified.

Cambridge is getting a better service. We're all proud of that. We've merged street cleaning with parks. It makes sense. All open spaces are under one management. Two years ago I swept pavements alongside parks, but if the wind blew a crisp paper from kerb to grass, it was no longer my responsibility.

We've got more money coming into the service. And I've got my broom and barrow back. Machines are okay for some areas, but in the city centre they cannot get into corners, behind telephone boxes or into shop doorways. King's Parade will look even cleaner.

Nationally, I am confused about where the government is heading. Some best value reviews elsewhere seem to have been CCT all over again. I am confused about where the government is heading. I wish they would stop implying only the private sector has the answers. I am fed up with hearing about Richard Branson. Why not look for good practice in the public sector? It's there. Although we have more money coming to the city council, it sometimes feels the real message is private good/public bad. And PFI remains a mystery that sounds like a threat. I am demoralised by the lack of clear objectives. There was a promise to review two-tier workforces but I am no longer sure what is happening on this. There have been too many conflicting statements.

Housing remains a problem. I hear ministers talk of help for key workers but they only talk about teachers, nurses and police officers. They all earn £10,000 a year more than street sweepers, dustmen or care assistants but we are equally as crucial. I'm lucky. I have a working partner, no children and we bought our house 20 years ago. None of my younger colleagues can afford a house in Cambridge. One is bicycling 20 miles a day to work. Remember we start at 6am.

What I'd like to hear is "respect" for all public service workers, but especially for those in the unglamorous, low-paid jobs, essential to any functioning community. They ought to try "partnership agreements" with public sector workers. Involve the staff, don't knock them. It could be the best way of providing public services.

The Common Good: March 21 2001

Street cleaner, Cambridge
Salary: £15,000

Work begins at 6am. There are five two-men teams - and they are all men at the moment - cleaning a wedge of the city centre. I could not have a better patch: it includes King's Parade with a fantastic view of King's College, Trinity Street, and the college backs down to the river Cam. The downside is the number of tourists it attracts: over 3m in a year.

When I started 20 years ago there was one fast food outlet, a fish and chip shop in a back street. Now there is a string of take aways, a new habit of public "grazing", and a new belief in the pedestrianisation of public streets. We don't just sweep up chips and condoms. I picked up a bra the other day.

Two decades ago we had a broom and a barrow. We've been through every variety of cleaning machine since then - pavement sweepers with automatic brushes, big vacuum cleaners you could walk behind or sit behind, and now special vans. But you still need a mixture of machine and manual methods.

There is a lot of satisfaction to the job. You see the city wake up. You're responsible for your patch. You feel part of the community. In the spring, birds are singing, ducks chasing each other at dawn, and you feel great to be working in such a beautiful city. In the winter, it is often cold, wet and depressing. Your toes get cold and don't warm up all day.

I could not live in a cab or work indoors. We're the council workers most people meet. They like to moan about council services - just like they used to moan about British Rail. I like working for the council. It does try and respond. I feel part of the organisation. But there have been moments in the past when I hated them.

The worse times were with CCT (compulsory competitive tendering) under the Tories. We seemed to be constantly bidding against rogue competitors. We were steeped in fear, frustration, stress and the threat of redundancies. Will Hutton was the only national commentator I read who offered a critique of casualisation and seemed to know the pain involved, but our full-time GMB officer gave time and commitment well above the call of duty to negotiate workable deals with our management, and offer support at every crisis.

I should probably also add that the director of the Direct Works Department has always been very positive at trying to find solutions that take the staff with him, within the constraints that he has had to work under. Sometimes we've had to differ, but I respect him a lot.

Pay is the biggest drawback. I'm lucky. I have a working wife, no children, and we bought our home 20 years ago. Since then pay has gone up fourfold, but Cambridge house prices tenfold. Public workers can not compete. I earn £15,000 from a long shift system, otherwise it would be £12,500. Younger colleagues find it difficult to survive.

Ministers talk about earmarking houses for "key workers" but they only mention teachers and nurses. They earn £10,000 more than us. They need to include sweepers and dustmen, otherwise the city will be buried in rubbish.

I never intended to stay a sweeper. I was thinking of becoming a teacher but needed some money to tide me over. The reason I stayed initially was Ernie, my first partner. He could not have been more open, trusting or conscientious. He was proud of his work. So am I.

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