A death threat was made to a manager at Cityclean, the council’s rubbish and recycling service, according to a report to Brighton and Hove City Council’s cabinet.
The threat was made in January, the council said, and was reported to Sussex Police.
Managers have faced acts of intimidation at work and at home and two managers have had their tyres slashed, the cabinet report said.
Alongside the “toxic” behaviour, missed rubbish collections have more than doubled – and it could be down to sabotage, according to the report.
It said that an average of 1,369 collections of all types were missed in the three months to late last month.
In a similar analysis for the three months to mid-December, an average of 573 collections were missed by Cityclean, the council’s rubbish and recycling service.
The worst-hit area was garden waste, with 299 missed collections to April – more than four times the 63 that were logged up to mid-December.
Last month, Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons, who represents Westdene and Hove Park ward, said that he had received hundreds of complaints about missed garden waste collections.
The council charges for the collection of garden waste but some areas were missed for more than six weeks.
The number of missed general rubbish collections went up from 273 in the three months to mid-December to 709 in the most recent three months.
Brighton and Hove Independent councillor Mark Earthey, who represents Rottingdean and West Saltdean ward, said that the service was in “complete meltdown” with some streets missed repeatedly.
The council had previously said that the service was improving after a critical independent external report into problems at Cityclean by barrister Aileen McColgan.
The number of missed collections fell from 2,552 in the first two weeks in August 2023 to 205 for the first two weeks of December 2023.
The new report to the council’s cabinet said: “Since January 2025, a significant setback in performance has occurred.
“There have been significant issues related to the reliability of the service which is compounded by paper-based systems and ageing fleet and equipment that has caused repeated vehicle defects.
“The service has also seen significant issues with staffing availability, an increase in sickness and difficulties in securing agency staff because of council spending controls.
“Potentially, some of the service issues may stem from intentional counter-cultural behaviours by a very small number of individuals and the service remains very alert to this. This includes sabotage of vehicles.
“Unfortunately, there has continued to be some toxic behaviours impacting the service”
The “toxic behaviours” were said to include sabotage of council vehicles and damage to property belonging to managers who were involved in disciplinary proceedings.
There have been two incidents of managers’ tyres being slashed, the report said, and acts of intimidation in the workplace and at managers’ homes.
The report added: “A death threat was made as recently as January 2025.
“Recent sabotage has of course been reported to the police and managed through the council’s disciplinary processes where evidence exits.
“A team has been mobilised to monitor and document all suspicious activities, taking significant time from other important service improvement work.”
The revelations come in a report called “Improving the culture and service performance of environmental services”.
The council’s cabinet is due to meet next. It is being asked to approve £892,000 for a service recovery programme and to note that £3.9 million is required to buy replacement vehicles including those for food waste collections which are due to start in the autumn.
The service recovery programme includes £147,000 for vehicle tracking and monitoring software to be fitted to all bin lorries and £360,000 to replace non-standard communal recycling bins.
The report said: “The software will automatically reallocate potentially missed work to other crews.
“Rounds vary each week due to traffic conditions, the availability of access to properties, the volume and weight residents throw away and the amount of time they need to wait to tip vehicles in the middle of rounds.
“In-cab technology will support drivers to work to the most efficient route and ensure we keep rounds more evenly balanced across crews.
“The programme is already deployed and working well in our trade waste service. The plan is to extend this to garden waste in June and refuse and recycling early in the summer.
“One of the things that frustrates residents and indeed our staff too is not being able to give accurate information on what happens when a round is delayed.
“This is because we are often gaining information over our radio systems or waiting for crews to return with round information on paper sheets at the end of the shift.
“We are working with our customer service team to ensure more accurate information is provided online and to callers too.”
The council also plans to recruit three relief HGV drivers, an employee relations manager to reduce staff absence, a data analyst manager to review data from customers, fleet and human resources systems to improve performance and two operations managers to increase capacity.
The council’s cabinet is due to meet at 2pm on Thursday 15 May at Hove Town Hall. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast.
Why recruit these managers, it’s operational staff we need. What good are all these reports except for increasing recycling rates! Crack on and get the real work done at the coalface. When will these bureaucrats ever learn? L
It may be difficult for the “bureaucrats” to concentrate on their jobs due to the death threats and having their tyres slashed?
It may be difficult for the “bureaucrats” to concentrate on their jobs due to the death threats and having their tyres slashed?
If these incidents occurred, then that is a criminal issue which is being investigated. The inefficacy of the management pre-dates these allegations and their answer is another level of management and a new report. Total waste of resources as management is not fit for purpose and no-one is holding them to account. Dereliction of duty imo.
Have you read the KC report that states that the toxic behaviour spans decades?
I hope the police are investigating but this is just a continuation
Have you ever worked at city clean lol, the management are an utter joke. I like the way none of the newspapers have reported on the last head of fleet stealing £2million, then being accused of sexual harassment and jumping before he was pushed. Let’s get real for a min, sack all the managers, then hire some who knows what day if the week it is.
How can the council change the culture at Cityclean if councillors refuse to look at the allegations made in the 2023 KC report about councillors and just focus on staff!
100% agree that the council should have a zero approach to bullying and harassment and criminality. But if councillors in the past turned a blind eye and their actions allowed this wrong, and sometimes even illegal behaviour to continue, why they they not being investigated too! Zero tolerance approach should extend to anyone who allowed things to continue for far too long and their actions should be investigated as well.
Dreadful for staff in the meantime and must be frustrating and many are still left unsupported and facing such threats and abuse. What a mess!
You mean the recommendation that councillors are not part of the appeals process? Yes, that change already happened and was reported on this website. https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2024/04/26/councillors-end-their-involvement-in-disciplinary-and-dismissal-appeals
Hi Benjamin, the KC report mentioned much more than just the appeal panels in relation to interference from politicians. The report spoke about “highly confidential information” being passed between Labour administration and GMB reps within the council back in 2019. That has zero to do with the appeal panels and I’m gobsmacked the current administration can’t see that unless they are willing to look at these kind of questions and get to the bottom of question marks about councillor conduct, it will reflect badly on them. Councillors need to be prepared to look at their own conduct and the conduct of their colleagues.
Of course the conduct of any staff bullying, threatening, or targeting others is hideous and wrong. But it remains a concern to me that question marks about councillor conduct do not appear to have been looked into further. I hope that they reconsider their position and agree to look at the accusations made about councillors around the 2017-2019 period mentioned in the KC report.
I completely agree with you that the conduct of any staff bullying, threatening, or targeting others is completely unacceptable, and that should be met with absolute zero tolerance.
In the current atmosphere at cityclean I cannot see that food-waste collection here will be anywhere near government targets. Look at the way wheelie bins were opposed! There were even wheelie bins lynched from a tree. Weird.
@Dingo here you go https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2020/07/22/cityclean-hit-by-fraud-bullying-sabotaged-vehicles-and-a-3m-overspend/