The backlash against a council’s controversial experiment with a four-day week has spread to parish councils, with a clerk quitting their job and members widely criticising the scheme.
South Cambridgeshire District Council has been allowing staff to work for 80 per cent of their contracted hours with no loss of pay since 2023, arguing it will improve conditions and aid job retention.
But the last Tory government tried to shut the project down amid fury over the way taxpayers’ money was being gambled on it, while a survey commissioned by the council recently revealed one in six workers were moonlighting on their day off.
Now parish councils – the first step on the rung of local democracy, who maintain vital services in their communities – have laid into the ‘shambles’ they say the four-day week has caused.
The frustration was voiced as it emerged Lib Dem-run SCDC leader Bridget Smith had refused to hold a public referendum on the matter – which was pushed through without holding a full council debate or consulting the public – claiming it would be ‘meaningless’.
Critics include a clerk who has resigned in frustration at the constant problems.
The individual – who wanted to remain anonymous while they serve out their notice – said: ‘I have never known such a shambles with the workings of the district council and self-gratification in the upper echelons of the district council.
‘The fact that this four-day week was pushed through with no agreement from full council is no less than shameful.’
South Cambridgeshire District Council (pictured) has been allowing staff to work for 80 per cent of their contracted hours with no loss of pay since 2023, arguing it will improve conditions and aid job retention
The frustration was voiced as it emerged Lib Dem-run SCDC leader Bridget Smith (pictured) had refused to hold a public referendum on the matter
Railing at the ‘appalling service’ that is now commonplace, they added: ‘My role is constantly impeded by the four-day week system and lack of direct contact with officers in all departments… this has the effect of prolonging issues that it used to be possible to resolve very quickly, often with one phone call.’
The clerk gave the example of emailing the housing department on a Monday morning over an urgent issue involving a tenant in social housing, only to receive an automated response saying that they no longer worked that day and would ‘endeavour to respond’ within seven working days.
‘I was appalled. [That] would in face mean I might not get a response until the following Thursday week,’ the clerk complained.
They also revealed how the ‘confidentiality of my calls and emails is compromised’ by officers regularly working from home, while conversations take place with the sound of ‘people speaking in the background and often dishes being washed or dogs barking’.
‘I don’t believe for one minute that the automated email responses I receive don’t mean that the officer is collecting children from school, putting out washing, cooking the batch of meals to put in the freezer on what is supposedly one of [their] full day’s work,’ they added.
Meanwhile, a member at different parish council compared the lack of district council staff available to handle queries to a ‘prolonged chronic form of holiday absence’.
‘Frequently, other members of the SCDC team that may take a call do so unwillingly and have to put down their own work and mostly learn, in the call, about a colleague’s work,’ the councillor said.
‘Generally, they will have to pass on queries when the officer is in the office. For the resident, the momentum is lost.’
Independent councillor Dan Lentell said: who has been contacted by disaffected parish council members and staff, told the Mail: ‘What’s happening at SCDC is nuttier than a squirrel’s brunch’
Another councillor, also speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Mail: ‘It’s like a kind of musical chairs with officers. You never know who’s going to end up where or when.
‘This makes sorting out day-to-day issues difficult and results in vast amounts of time being wasted.’
Yesterday, the Mail revealed how a whistleblower had accused the council of effectively operating a ‘three-day week [because] most people have Mondays or Fridays off’ and were afraid of mentioning their reduced hours to friends and family in case they were labelled ‘lazy’.
The council last week debated a motion to monitor staffs’ activities on their paid day off after independent councillor Ben Lentell said there were no proper checks in place. The motion was turned down by the Lib Dem majority.
Ms Smith did offer a public consultation but refused to hold a referendum.
Tory councillor Tom Bygott warned: ‘We are not going to have any view whether, as a taxpayer, people want to fund a four-day week but we are going to get a view whether they would want to be an employee working that way.’
South Cambridgeshire began a three-month pilot into the four-day week in January 2023 for 450 desk-based staff. It later extended the trial and added binmen and cleaners.
The then Tory government wrote to Ms Smith demanding the experiment be terminated but it has continued regardless.
The trial came under further fire when it emerged a 2023 report by Cambridge University academics at the Bennett Institute for Public Policy – which hailed the initial three-month trial as a great success – had been edited by the council prior to publication.
Exchanges included one council official worrying there was ‘too much detail’ which might allow critics to ‘rip the 4DW (four-day week) apart’ and asking if they could propose ‘changes’.
A researcher replied: ‘Sure… we’ll work towards a version that works for you!’
A clerk South Cambridgeshire District Council (pictured)has resigned in frustration at the constant problems
Independent councillor Dan Lentell, who has been contacted by disaffected parish council members and staff, told the Mail: ‘What’s happening at SCDC is nuttier than a squirrel’s brunch.
‘Jobs designed, advertised, and filled on the basis of traditional 5in7 [day] working are being crazily retro-fitted to 4in7. With the result that those already under the greatest stress are even worse off.
‘4in7 working should be for everyone, not just folks in one area of local government.’
A South Cambridgeshire District Council spokeswoman said: ‘The data so far on the four-day week is showing it is having a positive impact on the services we provide.
‘We will soon be carrying out a consultation, which will include talking directly with parish and town councils, to gather their feedback.’
