Council insists robot cleaners will not reduce jobs

Derby City Council leaders have insisted that two new robot cleaners are not a threat to staff jobs.

The authority recently purchased two of the machines for about £33,000, including a three-year servicing agreement.

Despite the strain on the authority's finances and a need to save almost £10m in the coming year, the council claims it is not about saving money on staff costs.

However, it does plan to use more AI to help it cut back in future.

Derby's cabinet member for digital and organisational transformation, Labour's councillor Hardyal Dhindsa, says the new recruits are not a threat to staff and will take over more mundane cleaning tasks to improve staff efficiency.

"This is an efficient and effective use of funding, because we can't recruit more staff...it's not about saving, it's about trying to do more," he said.

"No jobs are being lost...this hasn't replaced any staff."

He said budget challenges were a "separate issue" from the purchase, which was not accounted for as part of the council's AI investment programme, but separately as part of "innovation...to help enhance our cleaning service".

"We are leading in the country as a local authority looking to see how we can actually meet the financial challenges we face, where we are getting less and less budget, but our service and what we have to provide is increasing not decreasing."

But Dhindsa did say the council's AI programme will be looking at how savings can be made to the council elsewhere, with staff cuts as a result of AI investment not ruled out for the future.

It follows the introduction of digital assistants Darcie and Ali, designed to help website visitors and telephone callers.

The leader of Derby Conservatives, Steve Hassall, dismissed the justification for purchasing the equipment as "nonsense".

The leader of Reform Derby Tim Prosser said: "It's ridiculous when we are apparently so short of money."

Follow BBC Derby on Facebook, on X, or on Instagram. Send your story ideas to [email protected] or via WhatsApp on 0808 100 2210.