27 September 2010
Green Party councillors in Norwich have strongly criticised the failure of the city council to bring council services back in house following the collapse of Connaught.
At tomorrow’s (Tues) full council meeting the Greens are planning a barrage of questions (1) about the handling of the Connaught contract and the future of city services.
Two Labour Executive members of the city council made a decision last Thursday to continue working with privately owned companies to provide essential services to people who live in Norwich.
Claire Stephenson, leader of the Green group on the city council, said:
“The Green Party wants council services to be provided by the council, instead of the council paying a private company to provide them. Now that Connaught cannot continue to provide services to the council, this could have been a good time for the council to bring services back in house. 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. An in house system should provide a better service for residents, more accountability and better rights for workers.”
Greens also say the handling of the Connaught affair is reflecting badly on Labour’s running of the council. They’re concerned about the process followed on Thursday. Samir Jeraj, deputy leader of the Green group on the city council said:
“It’s unusual for such an important decision to be made by only two Executive members. A cross-party working group met before the Executive meeting, but this meeting was held in private and comments made by councillors are not available to the public. The Green group believes it’s high time for a more public process for making decisions.”
NOTES:
(1) The Green Party will ask the following questions about Connaught and the delivery of council services at tomorrow’s full council meeting:
Cllr Offord:
The Eastern Daily Press quoted the Leader of the Council on 7th September, saying “We are well geared up with contingency plans.” What were the plans to which he was referring?
Cllr Gledhill:
Can the Executive member assure me that work will now be carried out, by the council, to thoroughly explore and prepare for the option of bring some services in-house?
Cllr Read:
What contact did senior officers have with trade unions in the weeks immediately following the commencement of the Connaught contract in April?
Cllr Holmes:
What is the council doing to ensure that ex-Connaught employees are employed by any companies who may take over contracts previously held by Connaught?
Cllr Ramsay:
What efforts did the council make to ensure that Connaught employees would have access to the equipment they would need to carry out their work when the new contract began in April?
Cllr Haynes:
What checks were carried out by the council on Connaught Environmental before awarding that company emergency contracts?
