Death threat made to Cityclean manager in Brighton

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 report updating the council’s cabinet on cultural change and service improvements within the sector 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.

In November 2023, a report led by human’s right lawyer Aileen McColgan KC revealed a culture of abuse at Cityclean’s Hollingdean depot, in Brighton.

The inquiry, which was commissioned by the council after a whistleblowing complaint, highlighted issues where workers were regularly violent, racist, homophobic, and misogynistic to other staff members.

The report unveiled incidents such as an employee who brought a samurai sword, nun chucks, knives and other violent weapons to work while the investigation was already underway.

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.

Read: Over 40 staff members leave Cityclean following report

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 the service was improving after the critical independent external report by Ms 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 exists.

“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 at 2pm on Thursday, May 15, at Hove Town Hall and 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.