COUNCIL chiefs are being forced to reconsider plans to abandon the private sector outsourcing of Worcester's bin collections.

Worcester City Council's Labour leadership has been ordered to re-examine its intentions to scrap the private sector outsourcing of refuse pick-ups, street cleaning and park maintenance.

Conservative politicians used a council mechanism known as a 'call-in' to refer Labour's abandonment to the scrutiny committee for detailed questioning.

The committee has voted to send it back to the cabinet on the grounds of a "lack of clarity" and "risk to the finances" - the equivalent of a political 'slap in the face'.

During a heated scrutiny committee meeting members of the Labour leadership refused to guarantee standards of cleanliness in the city would not fall, despite being asked five times by Tory councillors.

The Labour cabinet wants to scrap the outsourcing, keeping the jobs of 110 staff in-house, but it will mean savings of £400,000 a year need to be found elsewhere.

Labour Councillor Adrian Gregson, the city's leader, was pressed during the meeting on his reasoning.

He said: "I want staff working on services at the frontline of this council, to be people who actually work for us, not employed by a private company, which could then be swallowed up by a multinational."

He said the move to abandon the outsourcing was widely publicised by Labour before it took over control on the council in May, and told the committee it was "an easy decision" for the benefit of staff.

"There is no firm evidence of any level of savings being achieved, we won't know what savings there could be until we've pressed that button, it's too much of a risk," he said.

Several Tories called for "an absolute guarantee" standards would not fall, and pressed them for where the alternative savings would come from to balance the books.

Councillor Gregson said "it would be wrong" to say certain standards would remain in place forever, but insisted he wants to improve it.

Tory group leader Councillor Marc Bayliss, who chairs the committee, said Labour "have no plans at all to fill that budget gap", and accused them of "failing to offer any guarantee" services would not worsen.

Councillor Gregson said the proposal had worsened staff morale and told them: "The privatisation of public services is fraught with difficulty".

The Conservatives then accused them of "pulling the plug too early" and being unable to offer an alternative plan for saving money.

Labour's cabinet member for cleaner and greener, Councillor Jabba Riaz, criticised the line of questioning, saying: "Who doesn't want clean streets and parks?

"There seems to be a suggestion that we don't want that, which is completely wrong."

A former leader of the city council, Councillor Simon Geraghty, called for an "urgent rethink".

After the vote to send it back to cabinet was tied 6-6, Councillor Bayliss used his casting hand to chuck it back.