Opposition politicians have failed to force a second vote on plans to privatise £5 million of Watford council services.

At a meeting last night Labour politicians questioned a decision by Watford Borough Council’s ruling Liberal Democrat administration to contract street cleaning, bin collections and parks maintenance to the company Veolia.

However Labour and Green councillors’ attempt to send the decision back to the cabinet was voted down by Lib Dem councillors on the overview and scrutiny committee.

The meeting was called after three Labour councillors challenged the cabinet’s vote on April 3 to go ahead with plans go ahead with the privatising plans, which are set to save the borough £730,000 a year.

The decision came as council offices said the borough needed to find £2 million of budget savings by 2015.

At the meeting Labour councillors queried why the council had not looked more closely at the option of keeping the services in-house with reductions.

Cate Hall, the council’s executive director, said that option would have also led to staff redundancies.

She said: I genuinely don’t think you can take that amount of money out of the service without affecting some people’s jobs".

During the meeting councillors pressed Derek Scudder, the Liberal Democrat portfolio holder for environmental services, over guarantees that council staff transferring would be paid at least the Living Wage.

The Living Wage is the hourly rate determined by the Centre for Research in Social Policy as the lowest on which workers can keep up with the basic cost of living in the UK.

It currently stands at £7.45 an hour compared to £6.19 national minimum wage.

Asif Khan, a Labour councillor for Leggatts, asked: "What guarantee have you got on the living wage? Is it a gentleman’s agreement or is there something in black and white?"

Councillor Scudder said Veolia had already made a promise to pay council workers at least the Living Wage, but he would make sure it was part of the forthcoming contract negotiations.

Liberal Democrat Councillor George Derbyshire attacked Labour’s Living Wage concerns as a "red herring".

He said: "Our primary responsibility is to the people who work for Watford Borough Council at the moment. We have more of a responsibility to them than to people who may join Veolia to deliver this contract sometime in the future."

The Park representative said the wages of current Watford Borough Council staff had already been guaranteed by Veolia and the lowest paid borough worked was on more than the Living Wage.

He added: "For our staff it is not an issue. Think this is really a bit of a red herring".

During the meeting, Labour deputy leader Jagtar Singh Dhindsa criticised Liberal Democrat councillor Keith Crout, who holds the Community portfolio in the cabinet for not attending.

He said Councillor Crout’s community services portfolio was affected by the Veolia contract adding: "We pay him extra money to be a portfolio holder so we should have the opportunity to question him".

Following the meeting Councillor Scudder said he and Councillor Crout felt he could answer all the questions raised by Labour as they had already been answered at the earlier cabinet meeting.

He added: "It was posturing and posturing which was damaging for the staff (transferring to Veolia). I think it was pretty disgusting".