Barnet Today LINK is reporting that Barnet Council has decided that the proposed four borough waste, recycling, street cleaning and parks maintenance super contract was 'too high risk' and will approve having the services in-house.
So Labour Brent Council has turned out to be more of a privatiser than right-wing Conservative Barnet Council! Barnet is presently in turmoil after Cllr Brian Coleman and former London Assembly member was suspended from the national Conservative Party. Coleman is in trouble over alleged racist slurs and an assault.
The Barnet Today report states:
So Labour Brent Council has turned out to be more of a privatiser than right-wing Conservative Barnet Council! Barnet is presently in turmoil after Cllr Brian Coleman and former London Assembly member was suspended from the national Conservative Party. Coleman is in trouble over alleged racist slurs and an assault.
The Barnet Today report states:
The council had been exploring the possibility of procuring its waste management services in partnership with Brent Council. But while the neighbouring borough agreed to pursue that avenue earlier this month, Barnet’s council officers ruled that it was too high-risk.Brent Council press office today refused to answer my request about the future of the contract on the grounds that I was not an accredited journalist.
The decision will be seen as a departure from the council’s controversial One Barnet model, which will see a raft services, including planning and customer services contracted to private companies via two outsourcing projects worth around £1billion.
Council leader Richard Cornelius said providing the services in-house represented the best option for driving down costs and improving services.
“The One Barnet programme has always been pragmatic and this was the pragmatic way to go,” he said. “The rubbish collection in this borough is well done. It can be improved but we don’t want to muck it up.”
