THE leader of Worcester City Council has defended a proposal to hand parks maintenance to a private firm - and says he believes "most people" will understand the logic.

Amid a campaign by the city's Labour Party, which is asking people to wear green ribbons to rally against it, Councillor Simon Geraghty says he thinks the move is the right one.

He insisted there is a "clear distinction" between having workers from a private company maintain the sites and actually privatising them.

It follows Labour politicians launching a campaign called 'Save our Parks', which over the last week has been labelled "a lie" by rival Tories.

Cllr Geraghty said: "We are looking at who undertakes the activity (of maintaining city parks) - we are not talking about asset transfers, or charging people to enter parks, or barring people from parks, I would put all that a world away from our proposals.

"Worcester's parks are not for sale. We've invested heavily in them and I passionately believe in them - they are a really important part of our city.

"I think most people will understand the distinction we are making, and there's clearly a difference of opinion between the parties on it."

The Labour group has refuted any claims of dishonesty, pointing to a briefing sheet produced for the council's December cabinet meeting which listed 'parks' in general as being part of the outsourcing process.

During a cabinet meeting last week managing director Duncan Sharkey said future reports would be more detailed and not as "badly worded".

The proposal is to outsource most of the council's cleaner and greener function, also taking in playground maintenance, street cleaning and bin collections, in a bid to save £500,000 a year from 2017.

Councillor Adrian Gregson, Labour group leader, insists the outsourcing is "worrying".

The group remains highly sceptical of the process.

"The real issue about cleaner and greener is rolling bins, street cleaning, parks and playgrounds into one - a very large private company would be needed to do all that," he said.

"Putting all of that into the hands of the private sector cannot be right."

He added: "Parks should be provided by the local council for the benefit of the people of Worcester. Our message is simple: Worcester is not for sale."

Councillor Marc Bayliss, city council deputy leader, has called the Labour campaign a "lie" but Labour insists it is based on fears over the consequences of creeping privatisation and what it means for jobs.

The cleaner and greener functions affected by the outsourcing would implicate 120 staff, with their roles transferred over to the new employer.