8 September 2010
The Green Party has commented today on the financial difficulties facing the housing services company Connaught, which has seen trading its shares suspended in the face of £220m debts.
Connaught has eight contracts with Norwich City Council for services such as rubbish collection, street cleaning and housing maintenance and employs 650 people in the city. Now it seems possible that the company will go into administration.
Norwich City Councillor and Deputy Leader of the Green Party Adrian Ramsay said today:
“We asked questions about whether this contract was too good to be true. We consistently argued that it’s better to bring the services back in house and when these contracts come to an end, that it what we would seek to do if we were the largest party at City Hall. We believe this would provide better rights for workers, a better service for residents and more accountability.”
Claire Stephenson is leading the Green Party campaign for the City Council elections which take place on Thursday. If re-elected, it is expected that she will resume her position as leader of the Green group of councillors. Ms Stephenson said:
“Asking private companies to do the work of the council often turns out to be more expensive and means that the council has less control over the work that is done. Green councillors would like to bring some contracts back in house over the next few years.”
She added that the experience with Connaught reflected badly on Labour’s ability to run the council successfully.
