Causeway Coast & Glens Council concern over Environmental Services staff shortage and ageing workforce
Causeway Coast and Glens councillors have voiced concern about a shortage of employees and an ageing workforce in its Environmental Services Department.
In a Business Plan report for 2026/27, presented to May’s Environmental Services Committee, officers said the absence of a settled full quota of staff within the department “continues to have a negative effect on the ability on the department to reach optimum levels of performance”.
“Building and grounds maintenance department staffing levels continue to lag by approximately 10% below the numbers in the approved structure,” the report noted.
“The current buoyant job market is making recruitment difficult but has the benefit in lower staff numbers helping to keep cost base down to the detriment of work completion rates.
“Temporary seasonal roles are proving particularly hard to fill and this has hampered efforts to implement the strategic aims and functions of the service area. There is the real possibility that this will continue to impact on service delivery into the future.
“Another concern is the age profile of staff within the department; it is critical to look to the future and consider how council provides for continuity planning in the coming period where a significant proportion of experienced and knowledgeable staff will retire."
DUP councillor Tanya Elder asked if Council had a long-term workforce plan to “ensure service delivery standards do not decline any further”.
Director of Environmental Services, Aidan McPeake, said Council’s main challenge is the recruitment of “technical staff”, but certain sections of the department such as Environmental Health were being offered additional hours to catch up with food inspections.
He added: “Elsewhere, as we go through the recruitment process we have some ageing staff, but we have to just deal with that and as new staff are recruited they tend to be from the younger profile, which is good to see.
“We’ve had these problems for a number of years and we’ve managed to keep on top of it, the level of service Environmental Services I think is to a very high standard, and [I hope] we will continue to maintain that.
“We will do so on the basis of trying to recruit and keep our staff and levels as maintained as best we can, [but] it’s a particular problem right across all the Northern Ireland Councils for professional staff.”