The council’s frontline staff are the unsung heroes of our city, writes council leader Bella Sankey. Every day, council workers - from street cleaners to social workers - are putting in hard graft, often in difficult circumstances, to deliver the services we all rely on, or might rely on one day.

In the last year alone, the council’s lifeguard team saved 21 lives and reunited 50 missing people on the seafront, while our library staff welcome over one million visitors each year. Kerbside refuse and recycling collections made by our Cityclean staff total around 131,000 per week. These are just a few of the teams that keep our city running.

That’s why I am outraged, on behalf of the majority of hard-working frontline staff, that a tiny minority are seeking to cause havoc. The recent sabotage and disruption at the council’s Cityclean depot, including the deliberate vandalising of bin lorries, is scandalous, unlawful and extremely dangerous. It has also disrupted the reliability of our waste and recycling service.

When we came into administration last year, we made improving the city’s refuse and recycling service a top priority of our Labour administration. This was following years of hearing from residents about the plight of overflowing bins and missed collections.

When I was made aware of the whistleblowing testimony concerning the culture at the depot, I was determined to urgently get to grips with the problems that have blighted the service and ultimately affected our city for years. My instruction to officers was that an independent KC-led inquiry be conducted. This was led by Aileen McColgan KC who carried out an investigation and listened to the views of more than 70 witnesses from all levels and jobs within the Cityclean service and released her report after a three-month investigation.

Following the conclusion of her report last November, we are implementing all ten of her recommendations and working with staff on a programme of culture change.

There was also a marked improvement in the quality of service too following the publication of the KC report. Missed kerbside refuse collections reported through the website went from 2,552 in the first two weeks of August 2023 to 205 in the first two weeks of December 2023, a huge reduction of over 90 per cent in four months. Missed kerbside recycling collections dropped by 68 per cent.

This goes to show what can be achieved when the service is operating effectively, and it is why we won’t be deterred by anyone in our efforts to achieve the cultural change and service improvements that staff and residents so rightly expect and deserve.

After a few months of much improved service to our residents, it is very disappointing to see it disrupted and I understand the strength of feeling from residents. Let me be clear - this is not a return to how things used to be. We will get to the bottom of the service disruption and we will clear the backlog. We will also put in the work required to transform the reliability of the service once and for all. Sussex Police are now investigating, both the discovery of weapons at the depot, uncovered by the KC investigation, and the deliberate sabotage of vehicles.

As part of our commitment to get on top of refuse and recycling, we are making improvements to modernise the service. We’ll be taking delivery of four new communal vehicles over the next few weeks. As well as being zero emission EVs, these new vehicles will bring significant reliability improvements to the service. Through our City Environment Improvement Programme, we are working on improving our recycling provision and introducing food waste collections. We are expanding recycling points across the city and imminently rolling out new bins for food and drink cartons, and waste electrical items.

The look and feel of our city has been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that the transformation we want to see will not happen overnight. From tagging, to weeds, to the state of Madeira Terrace, we have a long way to go. But our new action plan on weeds will take effect this spring, we are expanding the size of the team tackling graffiti tagging and the phase one restoration of Madeira Terraces is under way while we get on with further fundraising for phase two.

We know our frontline services are extremely valued by residents. I want to reiterate our Labour council’s commitment to ensuring we have a waste and recycling service that keeps our city clean and tidy. Lasting improvements to this service remain a central focus of this administration and we will continue to give it the attention it deserves.

Bella Sankey is leader of Brighton and Hove City Council