A four-day week trial at South Cambridgeshire DC will expand despite local government minister Lee Rowley again calling on the council to end the pilot.

The council began a four-day week trial in January after struggling to fill several vacancies and often using agency staff to cover them, with waste crews now being brought in to the scheme.

South Cambridgeshire has recruited to nine of the 23 posts that could not be filled permanently before the trial, which it expects will save £550,000 on agency cover this year, according to a report that will be discussed by the council's employment and staffing committee tomorrow.

Last week Mr Rowley wrote to the council with a repeated request to end the trial.

But council leader Cllr Bridget Smith said: ‘We need the trial to run for its full planned length - until the end of March - to gather data and assess whether a difference has been made.'