BASILDON Council used £150,000 which was allocated for Billericay projects to instead pay for borough-wide cleaning teams, a councillor has claimed.

Andrew Schrader, conservative councillor for Billericay East, rejected a council plan to add two more Pride Teams to the borough.

Since starting in September 2017, the three currently active teams have carried out work across Basildon, Wickford and Billericay to clear footpaths of overgrown bushes and deep clean areas of litter.

Basildon Council’s regeneration and environment committee agreed to invest £150,000 into two new teams.

The one-off cost will pay for two members of staff, a transit van and a number of hand tools for each team.

However, Mr Schrader blasted the plans - saying that the money was taken from a pool of cash intended for Billericay High Street, the swimming pool in Lake Meadows Park, Billericay, as well as for projects in Laindon and Langdon Hills.

An investment in the swimming pool would have cost £150,000.

Mr Schrader told the committee: “We only have this funding available for Pride Teams because you nicked it off my residents.

“It seems like an easy win for a council that are looking for things to put on leaflets.

“This is money that should have been used for Laindon, Langdon Hills and Billericay pool, so that is why I will not be supporting it.”

Following Mr Schrader’s rejection of the new teams, other members of the committee rallied to celebrate the work of the Pride Teams since they begun in the back end of last year.

David Harrison, councillor for Wickford Park, said: “I’m surprised some of the councillors are not supporting this.

“An area in my ward was so overgrown you could not even get through, it had been like it for years. The Pride Team came down and the issue was cleared.”

Kerry Smith, councillor for Nethermayne also thanked the three teams and said: “They started working in my ward, where it had become a little jungle down there with brambles cutting people and things. The Pride Teams went in like Arnold Schwarzenegger, cutting back everything and they got the work done.”