Advertisement
Council to bring property and highway services back in house
Date published: 16 December 2011
Rochdale Council is to bring property and highways services back in house.
The services have been provided by the Impact Partnership since 2006 as part of a 15 year partnership between the council, Mouchel and Agilisys.
The news comes following a strategic review of the Impact Partnership which was announced by the council in October.
Rochdale Online understands the move means that the Impact Partnership will cease to exist and all the council's dealings with Mouchel will end.
In terms of timescale the services are expected to be brought back into the council in the new year.
Locally, there has been much criticism of the Impact Partnership and this now means that money contracted out to Mouchel can now be spent how the council wants to spend it on what they want to spend it on.
The council’s contact centre services will continue to be provided by Agilisys, which is contracted by the Impact Partnership. The review into the council’s payroll and ICT services, also provided by Agilisys, is continuing and expected to conclude in February 2012.
The Leader of Rochdale Council, Councillor Colin Lambert, said: “The reality is that the Impact Partnership was entered into in 2006 by all parties in good faith under very different economic circumstances and since that time the economic climate has fundamentally changed. In particular, the contract included targets for the delivery of jobs growth which have become increasingly difficult to achieve under global recession.
“As part of the review, council officers and the Chief Executive have held numerous meetings with the senior management of Mouchel and the Impact Partnership. Following consideration of the options, it is proposed that, because it has become clear that the targets for future potential jobs have become increasingly difficult to achieve in property and highways, these services will be brought back in house.”
Councillor Lambert continued: “Following careful consideration of the options, the contact centre will continue to be delivered by Agilisys and we will continue our strategic review for both payroll and ICT, because a large number of jobs have been successfully delivered in those services in the borough and more such jobs are in the pipeline. It is my intention to have the continued review resolved by the council meeting in February.”
Councillor Lambert concluded: “This proposal is being made in an entirely amicable way. All parties are co-operating to the fullest extent.
“When the final accounts are settled, no element of compensation will be payable. The negotiation of legal agreements is progressing.”
Comments
Sanity prevails at last! Council services cannot be run by a private company to make an income. For years other council services have been charged for highway services, which were originally provided as a matter of course. Let's just hope there are still highways staff to bring back in house!
At last Rochdale Council has seen sense and got rid of the ridiculous Impact Partnership. Perhaps now they can concentrate on delivering a decent service at a respectable price rather than have much of their profits siphoned off to pay Mouchels over-salaried "executives" and hangers on. Well done Rochdale MBC. The future is a little brighter!
At last! Since its inception, this farce has been a leech on council resources, increasing, rather than reducing layers of bureaucratic nonsense and spin. It's a shame that hundreds of council workers have had to be sacrificed before the council has finally had the guts to make cuts in one of the right areas. I believe this has little to do with the Chief Executive or his team, rather it is pressure from Her Majesty's Government!
Unfortunately Mouchel made council staff redundant or moved them to Oldham while bringing in their own people. Are there enough professionals left to run a service now?
Also, what happened to the idiots who set up this contract without penalties for failure? Were they sacked; no they are now running departments!
The Council need to look into Agilisys big pockets. ICT should also go back to RMBC. One prat I had the displeasure to work for was on £140,000.
Have Your Say
This is the most positive move that the leader of the council and his party have taken since taking control of the Council. Now we will have to see how well the services are managed. From the New Year, let us hope it is bright lights and pot hole free highways and byways.
By James Allan Whitehead @ 16/12/2011 11:30:43