WORCESTER'S Labour Party is calling for a "secret" report on outsourcing bin collections to be made public - saying they are being kept in the dark.

Councillor Lynn Denham says an external report detailing the expected savings from handing rubbish pick-ups, street sweeping and park maintenance needs to be aired in public before it is accepted.

As your Worcester News revealed last week, the city council's Conservative leadership has voted to back a strategy to outsource those services to the private sector from 2017, implicating 114 jobs.

The move is aimed towards a drive to save £500,000 a year, but a consultants' report on the details has only been seen by a few senior Tory councillors and very senior staff.

The assessment was done by GlobeEC, an environmental consultancy in Manchester, and the findings are not being made public due to what the city council calls "commercial confidentiality".

One report has been published for general consumption though, a summary by the council's officers which says the estimated savings if the city council agrees a deal with Malvern and Wychavon could total £1.6 million a year.

But it also said Worcester's share of that saving would be less than one third but more than £250,000, leaving question marks - and the upfront fee to find a private operator is estimated to be £200,000.

Councillor Denham said: "It seems as though the joint procurement has actually been determined behind closed doors by Conservative politicians of the three councils, based on a secret report."

Councillor Adrian Gregson, Labour group leader, said: "We're calling for more transparency - what we need to know is, will this actually save the money being trumpeted?

"There are all sorts of issues and questions - I've got my own philosophical views on it, but we need to look at the financial facts and yet we're being denied it."

Councillors in Malvern, who also agreed last week to team up on the project, have been allowed to view the consultants' report as long as they don't share it publicly.

The city council has taken legal advice from its own monitoring officer which recommended it be kept confidential.

The Tory cabinet says it is focused on getting the best deal possible - and ensuring service standards are kept.

Councillor Andy Roberts, the cabinet member for cleaner and greener, said: "This seems to have become quite political, but the strategy of outsourcing is one that's being used by councils of all persuasions."

New operators will invited to submit their bids from January 2017, with the majority of jobs expected to transfer over.

The process will also result in extensive consultation with the public, council staff and trade unions before anything gets agreed.