Posted: Mon 15th Jul 2013

Council To Create Trading Company?

Wrexham.com for people living in or visiting the Wrexham area
This article is old - Published: Monday, Jul 15th, 2013

The Council Executive Board will meet next week to discuss ‘Reshaping Services to meet the Financial Challenges’. However we are unable to report on this meeting as members of the public and the press aren’t allowed in.

The public link to the report states as is usual in these cases:

Agenda Item 4 – Not for publication by virtue of Paragraph 15 of Part 4 of Schedule 12a to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended). The Proper Officer has determined in considering this report that Paragraph 15 should apply. His view on the public interest test was that while he is mindful of the need to ensure that transparency and accountability of public authorities for decisions taken by them he was satisfied that in this case disclosure of the information would prejudice the discussion in relation to labour relations to the disadvantage of the authority and inhabitants of its area. On that basis he felt that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. It is, therefore, recommended that the press and public be excluded from the Meeting during consideration of the following item as it is likely that, if they were present, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 15 of Part 4 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).”

Last week the press and public were booted out at the end of the Executive Board meeting and were not allowed to report on “Review of Corporate Cleaning – Proposal for the Creation of a Local Authority Trading Company: To consider the report of the Lead Member for Economic Development and Regeneration”

The section that could potentially have been interesting to report on was the Review of Corporate Cleaning, as we believe it has a wider public interest. The proposal for the creation of a local authority trading company could mean that the council cleaning service could be in competition with or given to a third party. However as we were unable to attend the meeting, we cannot be sure.

In a Scrutiny Committee held on April 24 this year it was recommended to ‘support the proposal for the creation of a Local Authority Trading Company with Wrexham County Borough Council as the sole shareholder into which the current Corporate Cleaning service would be transferred, and that the Board of Directors include Member representation.’

The following issues were raised during the discussion:

  • Importance of ensuring health and safety safeguards were in place for all options;
  • Concern at the possible legal costs associated with a number of the options for consideration;
  • Importance of ensuring strong contract management was in place;
  • Clarification sought regarding relevant experience of Officers when considering similar proposals for other services; and
  • Consideration of the number of risk areas associated with the project.

A member of the committee suggested that the subject should fall under ‘Part 1’, which would have allowed the press and public to attend. The member of the committee believed there was “no impact on external organisations, and staff and unions were already aware of the proposals.  However, this was not supported by the other Members, as the Committee were being asked to look at various options which would then be agreed by the Executive Board.”

Reference was then made to the recommendation made by the Proper Officer who had determined that the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the report. However it was voted that if the press and public were present at the meeting ‘disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 14 and 15 of Part 4 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) and that the public interest in maintaining exemptions outweighs the public interest in disclosing them.’

We found an interesting document on Local.gov.uk regarding ‘Enterprising Councils’ which states “The Localism Act 2011 introduces a new General Power of Competence (GPC), which explicitly gives councils the power to do anything that an individual can do which is not expressly prohibited by other legislation.”

“This activity can include charging or it can be undertaken for a commercial purpose, and could be aimed at benefiting the authority, the area or its local communities.”

Examples of what a ‘trading’ entity could be are included, with explanations: “Sometimes it will seek to fill a gap in the market where it believes there is untapped demand for a particular service. E.g. translation services offered to other public bodies or offering library transcription services for the blind and extending such service offers to banks, utility companies and other agencies so they can send out bills and statements in tape (or other suitable) format”

 



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