Wirral Council forced to look again at parks privatisation

Oct 26 2011 by Liam Murphy, Heswall News

THE maintenance of Wirral’s parks and open spaces is under consideration again after a further row over the privatisation of the work.

The Tory and Lib-Dem leaders used the council’s call-in procedure to examine a move by the Labour controlled cabinet to keep maintenance of the borough’s open spaces under direct council control.

It had followed a lengthy tendering process where outside companies had been asked to bid for a 10 year contract.

But council leader Steve Foulkes said concerns raised by the district auditor over the council’s ability to prove value for money from a previous contract for outsourcing highways works threw this latest proposal in to doubt.

His comments came as it was revealed that Birkenhead MP Frank Field had asked the Serious Fraud Office to examine a Wirral Council contract.

The MP said council officers had been “unable to satisfy me that the proper procedures had been followed in placing the contract” or if councillors had been kept properly informed.

Mr Field said the SFO had indicated it would decide whether to launch an investigation in the next week. Wirral Council said the SFO had not contacted them.

Cllr Foulkes said the previous Tory-led administration’s refusal to allow an in-house bid for the parks contract also meant it would be difficult to prove it was right for the authority to outsource the work – which had been an attempt to save cash as it faces a £25m deficit in 2012.

He said: “Our view is that there is even less evidence the council would get value for money, and our decision was based on this. The council workforce were not given the chance to prove they would compete with the private sector.”

Cllr Foulkes said it had not been an easy decision for the authority, and accused Tories and Lib Dems of being ideologically driven in pushing for a privatisation approach.

However, he said cabinet would examine the scrutiny committee’s findings with an open mind before making a final decision.

At the meeting of the sustainable communities scrutiny committee Conservative group leader Jeff Green told councillors he believed cabinet had been wrong to not hand out the contract which would save Wirral a considerable amount.

However, council director of technical services Dave Green told the committee the council “can deliver a broadly comparable service” to the private sector.