BIN collections, parks, play areas, street sweeping and grounds maintenance are set to be privatised in Worcester - with the city council's in-house workforce being reduced a staggering 40 per cent.

Groundbreaking proposals can today be revealed to hive off a vast array of council services to the private sector to save cash.

The move, put forward by the Conservative leadership as an alternative to big cuts to vital public services, represent the biggest change to the city council for a generation.

The cleaner and greener department costs around £6 million a year to run and the council is looking to save taxpayers around £500,000 by outsourcing most of its functions.

Outsourcing most of the cleaner and greener department would lead to around 120 roles from a total council workforce of 270 being handed to the private operator.

The Conservatives insist the move would come with strict stipulations around "maintaining and enhancing" the service, and says there are various private operators on the market to choose from.

The aim is to get the deal up and running from April 2017, giving the leadership over two years to draw up a plan for it.

The announcement was made to staff today, and comes alongside the launch of the proposed 2015/16 budget including a council tax freeze.

Under the plan there will be no cuts to jobs, as staff will have their roles transferred over.

The Tory administration intends to start exploring it early next year, drawing up a service specification before taking it to the commercial market to examine the interest.

The idea is not new - it is similar to the commissioning process at Worcestershire County Council, and works around a set contract paid to one or more outside operators.

Councillor Simon Geraghty, the city council leader, said: "Lots of councils have gone down this route, these services are very simple ones where it is easy to specify what we want.

"It's a mature market and we want to get a deal which is right for the city - the alternative to this is cuts to front line services.

"We will be looking for a commercial provider, or a number of commercial providers to not only sustain these services but enhance them.

"Local government is getting less money and we don't see that changing, so we have to do things differently."

The end solution could be one big company being selected to run all the functions, or each area handed over as separate packages.

Cllr Geraghy said there would be no weakening of the service - and that he wants the private sector to invest.

He added: "We are doing this because we want to maintain and improve on our high standards in these areas.

"Our budget is stable for the next couple of years but we know that by 2017/18 we will need to find savings of around half a million pounds.

"That means we have to start delivering further savings from our cleaner and greener services by then."

The news comes amid a serious of major investments planned for 2015/16, which is due to go out for public consultation.

It includes £25,000 on maintaining the riverside, £80,000 back into street cleaning and £15,000 back into play areas.

Car parking charges, which were dramatically slashed this year, will be frozen as will council tax.

Under the strategy, the council's cemetery will be kept in-house as it brings in money, as will car parking.

The entire budget for 2015/16 will be voted on in February after a round of public consultation.

* More reaction will follow on this story tomorrow.