A COUNCIL has sparked outrage after pressing ahead with a permanent four-day working week despite furious locals claiming services have gone downhill.
South became the first council to adopt a four-day week permanently this .
South Cambridgeshire District Council have gone ahead with a permanent four-day working week
The district launched a trial in 2023 letting staff clock off a day early each week while keeping full pay.
The trial was introduced to see if it would help with the and retention problems the authority had been facing.
But disgruntled residents have fumed that bin collections, planning, and services all suffered since the trial began.
Before rubber-stamping the new system in July, the Lib Dem-run council commissioned two reports by DJS Research to gauge public .
An “open consultation” with more than 1,000 residents found a “statistically significant decline” in satisfaction across nine of 13 key services – and not a single one saw improvement.
The damning report warned: “For all services, the mean satisfaction scores are lower for the period since the four-day working week came into effect, than before.”
However, town hall chiefs chose to highlight a separate “representative survey” that painted a rosier picture, suggesting only three services – bin collections, council tax and customer contact – had dipped.
Officials brushed these off as a “perceived decrease” in quality, reports the Times.
Under the four-day week staff receive full pay for working fewer hours, but are expected to complete all of their work in that time.
But the open consultation showed just 36 per cent of responders backed the four-day week.
It means most residents oppose staff doing the same job in 80 per cent of the hours, on 100 per cent pay.
The council instead cited the second poll, where support rose slightly to 45 per cent – but still not a majority.
Defending the move, the council blamed widespread gripes on a “national decline” in satisfaction with local government, pointing to a Local Government Association survey showing frustration across the country.
Heather Williams, the leader of the Conservative opposition, said that the Liberal Democrat-led council was “attempting to cherry-pick survey responses to suit”.
She told The Times: “It was clear that from the open survey there was widespread opposition to taxpayers’ being spent ‘gifting’ council workers a day off every week, all while council tax has gone up and up every year.
“We will do all we can to end this madness.”
Fellow Tory Cllr Richard Williams said the had affected services such as waste collection, which were costing taxpayers more.
Mr Williams said: “You really need to abandon this ridiculous and expensive trial.”
It comes after , the local government secretary, wrote to Bridget Smith, the leader of the council, to express his concern over the policy.
In a letter sent to the district council this week, Mr Reed reiterated that the government would “not micromanage” the day-to-day running of , and said he understood there had been benefits in some areas.
However, he raised particular concerns about the impact of the four-day week on housing services at the authority.
Another 25 councils are said to be considering the move, which critics fear could spread through the public sector, hitting productivity and piling further pressure on public finances.
Lib Dem leader Bridget Smith had previously defended her scheme 
