COUNCIL AIMS HIRE

I enclose my CV...Cllr Robertson wants council to look for work

Cllr Folkes thinks our Alec is dreaming and it's going to cost us all..

Cornwall Council wants to set up a company to gun for contracts up country.

The council say the project is ‘groundbreaking’ and could create ‘up to’ 400 jobs over the next seven years.

The cash-strapped authority, suffering swingeing funding cuts, thinks it can bring in jobs and money to the Duchy by working ‘up in town’.

To do so, it would have to get into bed with a business partner to form a private firm that can bid for work.

The excited authority believes it can save £2.5 million of council taxpayers’ money this way.

But critics say it’s all ‘pie in the sky’.

The project was first discussed in council last November.

Officers proposed ’sharing’ or ‘outsourcing’ – selling by tender to private companies – high-profile public services like Libraries, council tax, free school meals.

For council staff, this meant their payroll and the invoicing department could also be contracted out.

The council’s currently holding talks with other public bodies, some from the health sector, as it looks for a ‘partner’ to form a trading company.

Council chiefs and Leader Cllr Robertson will be asking the full council to support the plans next Wednesday.

Council leader Alec Robertson denied he was selling anything off and said everything would remain the same, except that there would be new, permanent jobs.

But the dleader of the Liberal Democrats Alex Folkes rubbished the proposal.

Cllr Folkes emailed in reply to the news: “What the Conservative leader of the council is not saying is that it will cost at least half a million pounds to set up the new company.

“This plan is full of ‘coulds’ and ‘maybes’. There is no guarantee that it will win any contracts at all.

“Cornwall Council should be concentrating on delivering the best possible service to the people of Cornwall.

“Not making ‘pie in the sky’ bids to win contracts in Lambeth, Leeds or Lossiemouth.”

Cllr Folkes went on: “Many local authorities are already doing work for their neighbours but without a private sector partner which will cream off the profits.

“Cornwall’s so-called ‘unique approach’ appears to be based on helping big consultancy firms.”

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Posted by admin on 19:08 Jul 8 2011. Filed under COUNCIL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry