PLANS to minimise the impact of public sector strikes tomorrow (July 10) are in place but the county council has admitted it can't be sure "how and which services will be affected."
Teachers, local council workers and firefighters are all set to stage strikes throughout the day leading to fears of widespread disruption across the county including school closures, and changes to bin collections.
Teachers from the NUT will march from the top of Chelmsford High Street to the Essex Cricket Ground on Writtle Street between 11.30am – 12.30pm to protest against changes to pay, pensions and workload, while local council workers are also striking over a lack of meaningful pay increase and firefighters will walk out from 10am to 7pm over changes to their pension conditions.
"Until the day of the strike it will be difficult to be sure how and which services will be affected. However, the Council will be seeking to ensure any disruption to local communities is kept to a minimum as much as possible," a county council spokesperson said.
Braintree District council will be limiting collections to trade waste and grey bins as a result of the industrial action with the remainder of waste collection on Saturday instead while public toilets will be open but not be cleaned for the strike period.
A spokesperson from the council said: "We intend to run as normal a service as possible, but this will be dependent on the number of staff choosing to strike on the day. Key services affecting vulnerable and/or elderly customers such as community transport will not be affected."
Chelmsford City council are not anticipating any impact upon their own services while Maldon District council has already offered a 1% pay increase to workers and is not taking part in the national pay negotiations.
Further information on any impact the strike action may have will be published on the Essex county counil website at www.essex.gov.uk.
