A Scottish environmental charity has said there is a “real danger” city cleanliness will slip after Dundee City Council proposed to cut back on street sweeping and open space maintenance.
With the city council looking to make £28 million of savings, new proposals would see areas prioritised by how clean they are instead of how often they are swept.
But Derek Robertson, the chief executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, said there is a risk of the city’s standards of cleanliness dropping.
He said: “Keep Scotland Beautiful welcomes the discussion about how local authorities can maintain the cleanliness levels of our streets and open spaces in line with current legislation.
“However, there is a real danger that standards of environmental cleanliness will start to slip in the face of current budget pressures.
“We know how important for civic pride and community wellbeing it is for local environments to be clean and safe, and we would hope that this would be fully reflected in any decisions the council might take.”
The proposals come after a council policy and resourcing committee found that not all streets in the city require the same level of cleaning resources.
New methods may mean that a “litter blackspot” would get more attention than areas not as prone to littering.
Council leader Ken Guild said the council was looking to make changes as part of efforts to work as efficiently as possible.
He said: “The existing model is 20 years old. We are now looking at an exercise in smart working.
“We are looking at ways of working more efficiently in what we do to produce as near as we can to the previous results.”
A report to be considered by the policy and resources committee today will explain that £1.395 million of savings a year can be identified if a review of service delivery of street cleaning and parks is implemented.
The move will see the loss of 45 full-time posts. It’s hoped this can be achieved through voluntary redundancy and retirement, plus “natural turnover”, over three years.
Capital investment of £2.6 million over two years for improvement projects in places like parks and open spaces, road and footpath verges would help deliver the revenue savings, the council has said.