Geoff Bradfield, Wirral Unison

David Green, Director of Technical Services

Councillor David Elderton, Cabinet Member Culture, Tourism and Leisure

Mr Geoff Bradfield, Branch Officer, Wirral Unison.

Mr Bradfield referred to the Audit Commission’s complimentary report on the performance of the Council’s Parks and Countryside Service and reported that staff were prepared to play their part in making savings. An alternative plan would be to bring the Highway Verges Contract which was due to end in December 2011 into the Parks Division and to do the work at no extra cost, saving the Council up to £1m per year. There would also be spare capacity to carry out winter gritting for Parks and Countryside areas within existing resources.

Mr Bradfield referred to problems associated with privatisation e.g. the Council was tied into a long term contact for the bins service and could not vary it to allow weekly collections. There were costs associated with privatisation in terms of set up costs, consultancy fees, and client monitoring costs.  He suggested that there was scope to work with the existing staff to achieve the same level of savings projected in Option3.

Mr Bradfield responded positively to questions from Councillor Davies regarding the possibility of the Parks and Countryside Service (“the Service”) achieving target savings in line with the revised specification, and emphasised the importance of retaining the commitment, experience, and flexibility of the existing staff. He commented that the Council could save more by not privatising and still get all of the benefits (through a variation of Option1).

He responded to questions from members regarding consultations with the staff and trade unions. He acknowledged that meetings had been held with the Director of Technical Services regarding progress in the procurement exercise for Option 3, but this precluded discussion of alternative savings proposals because he believed the Director was acting on the Cabinet’s instructions (minute 84 – 22/7/2010).

Councillor Elderton, Cabinet Member, briefly outlined the history of the PACSPE procurement project and referred to the decision of the previous Administration to endorse the recommendation of the consultants, Capita Symonds, that Option 3 was the best way forward. He commented that the current Administration was trying to extend what they considered to be a good idea and this was a logical progression to its conclusion.

In response, Mr Bradfield said that Unison would object to any savings proposals that would have a detrimental effect on its members and lobby the Administration strongly if they considered that it was making a mistake. However, Unison was prepared to play its part in service reorganisations when it could be proved that they were necessary and beneficial

 e.g. the transfer of the Council’s housing stock to Wirral Partnership Homes.

David Green, Director of Technical Services

The Director responded to questions from Councillor Davies regarding the reasons for the exclusion of services from the procurement exercise (paragraph 3.3) and the reduced value of the contract. He reported that the gross budgets for all parks and countryside services was in excess of £14m but his report to the July Cabinet indicated (section 9) that there were still areas to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 119

Geoff Bradfield, Wirral Unison

Councillor David Elderton,

Dave Green, Director of Technical Services

Ian Coleman, Director of Finance

Bill Norman, Director of Law and Asset Management

Councillor Phil Davies, mover of the call-in

Mr Geoff Bradfield, Branch Officer, Wirral Unison

He expressed his concerns regarding the level of consultation that had taken place on the business case options.  Their recent survey of a range of stakeholders such as football clubs, bowling clubs, anglers etc, indicated that they had not been consulted on these proposals.

The trade union had received very short notice of the recommendations contained in the draft report to the 22 July Cabinet meeting regarding the preferred option 3, and was therefore playing catch-up in its response to the consultant’s report detailing the arguments. Their plan would be to bring back the Highway Verges Contract which was due to end in December 2011 into the Parks Division and to do the work at no extra cost, saving the Council up to £1m per year. This would be achieved by an investment in new machinery and a revised more flexible staffing structure to fulfil the requirement of the Streetscene Contract, in addition to the main Parks Contract.

Mr Bradfield responded to questions from Members concerning the background to the PACSPE procurement exercise, consultative meetings held prior to the draft Cabinet report, costs associated with his alternative option and the implications on the projected level of savings.

Councillor David Elderton, Cabinet Member

He referred to the Cabinet’s decision (minute 98 – 3/9/09) when the PACSPE Members’ Group decision to use Capita Symons to provide a more detailed analysis of the three options was endorsed. Having paid for the specialist consultancy services, he had taken their advice that an in-house bid was not appropriate for the reasons stated in paragraph 7.5, and Cabinet had therefore approved option 3.

He stated that the proposed new contract would deliver increased service quality and a real opportunity for local people to influence the management of these valuable assets. There were also new opportunities for better staff training and development. He emphasised that contracts of employment for all staff who decide to move to a new employer would be transferred.

He responded to questions from Members regarding his interpretation of consultation, benefits in allowing the workforce to engage and produce an in-house bid which could be used to assess the other options, transfer arrangements and TUPE.

He stated that discussions with the trade union would be part of the continuing process to develop the procurement programme and PACSPE would also form part of the wider Living in Wirral consultation. However, there had to be a measure of practicality in view of the need to make urgent savings.

David Green, Director of Technical Services

In response to questions from Members, he reported upon the aims and objectives of the PACSPE procurement process to maximise market potential and bring in innovation, the need for a contract with penalties and a specification to judge performance, benefits derived from similar large scale contracts, the experience of the consultants, and the viability of an in-house bid based on a price /quality bid. He also provided a summary of key decisions and consultative meetings  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68