Tuesday, 11 December 2012

Mebyon Kernow councillors oppose "Strategic Partnership"


Today was Full Council and the first agenda item was the so-called Strategic Partnership. In the first vote, councillors voted against the full BT outsourcing option – known to many as the “thick-JV” option. It was rejected by 71 votes to 30.

The second proposal to be put to the vote was to keep services “in-house.” This was lost by 50 votes to 46. The fifty councillors were mainly Conservatives and independents, but included at least six Liberal Democrats.

Early in the afternoon session, councillors voted to back a less comprehensive, but still extremely significant, “thin-JV” option.  This option includes ICT, document management, telehealth and telecare, and will involve the transfer of over 300 staff into a private company.

It is a sad day for Cornwall Council and the public sector.

For the record, all five MK councillors at the meeting (myself, Stuart Cullimore, Loveday Jenkin, Andrew Long and Tamsin Williams) backed calls to keep services in-house and opposed all the other options. Our sixth councillor, Neil Plummer, was not present because he is ill with pneumonia. 

No comments: