Privatisation in tatters as SNP rejects bin deal

Published on Wednesday 26 October 2011 12:09

The city council’s controversial plans to privatise key services were thrown into chaos last night after the SNP rejected them.

It leaves the proposal, which would see increased involvement of the private sector in local authority tasks, in disarray

City council officials wanted to bring in private firm Enterprise to operate a range of “environmental services”, including refuse collection, street cleaning and ground maintenance.

But the SNP group on the council today announced that it will oppose the proposals.

Councillor Steve Cardownie, deputy council leader and leader of the SNP group, called for the council workforce to be given a chance to show it can make the required savings.

The SNP’s shock decision is likely to put the group at odds with its Liberal Democrat coalition partners, who have not yet announced their position but have backed the proposals throughout the process.

And the SNP councillors are expected to be supported by Labour, which has consistently opposed the “alternative business models” (ABM) process.

It means it is almost certain that the privatisation of the services will be either cancelled or at least delayed at a meeting in the City Chambers tomorrow.

The Enterprise bid would save the council a minimum of £51.4m over seven years, possibly rising to £72m, while an “in-house” bid by existing staff was estimated to save at least £45m over the same period.

Cllr Cardownie said: “We have attended various briefings on this matter and, in weighing up the two proposals, we believe the public sector comparator deserves to be tested by the workforce.”

It is estimated that the Enterprise bid could lead to 228 job losses, whereas keeping the work in-house and finding alternative savings would lead to 121 job losses.

Cllr Cardownie said: “There is less of a full-time equivalent reduction [in staff] in the public sector comparator than in the Enterprise bid so in that regard the Enterprise bid would entail shedding more jobs.

“The public sector comparator can only work if it is embraced by the workforce and I believe they would prefer to operate in the public sector.”

The SNP and Labour groups together make up 28 of the 58 councillors in the City Chambers. If the Lib Dems were to press ahead with the proposals they could expect the support of the Tories but would also need to persuade the Greens to back the plan to have any chance of pushing it through.

But it is thought that Lib Dem councillors, as well as council officials, will be furious at the SNP position as significant sums of money have already been spent on progressing the ABM programme.

John Stevenson, president of Unison in Edinburgh, said: “If they throw it all out tomorrow then we would welcome that but we would also welcome a postponement.

“If you engage people on the front line, they are the people that know how to do it more efficiently and more cheaply so we would be confident that any in-house bid would not only be a good comparator now but also likely to improve.”

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54

enterprise & turley - 0 - Council Workforce - 1

Sunday, October 30, 2011 at 04:15 AM

#52 vlb FACT - you DO NOT tell the truth FACT - you are an employee of ENTERPRISE

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53

Old Jim

Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 02:00 PM

Good for the SNP! I have never undertsood, why councils like Edinburgh, dont go the modular use route for their vehicles Especially in Scotland, which does have bad winters On continental europe as well as Canada they use the modular concept, which save money Using single use trucks, is wasteful, especially when roads are closed these trucks will sit in theyard as they cant go anywhere. What am I talking about? Simple the council replace all binrefuse collection trucks with Trucks that take different modules, such as bin refuse modules and snowplough modules, so they get all year all round use of their fleet. example here http:www.mantruckandbus.fidatapoolmediapool900Public-utility-vehicles_en_2010414.pdf So when we have had a bad snow fall, they simply take off the binrefuse module of the back and put on the saltgritter module and a snow plough on the front when job done, its back to base and exchange the modules Better utilisation leads to cost savings, in addition the staff can get addional training to take on additional tasks and get paid for tyhe additional work, so a win win all round Privatising single use service is a waste of money and in the long term doesnt save

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52

vlb

Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 09:19 AM

lets get some FACTS out on the table here. 1) Fact.... the council commisioned Ernst & Jones to validate each of the private and public bids, Ernst and Jones concluded that unlike the private bidder the public sector bid was flawed and WOULD NOT be able to save the amount of money that they claimed in their proposal. so if the council give the go ahead to the public sector bidder then not only can they NOT save the jobs that they say they will they CAN NOT provide the service either. so expect your services to stay the same or get worse and your rates to go UP. 2) Fact.... there will be NO enforced job loses under any of the private bidders, people will and have been given the opertunity of early retirement, not to mention that the agency workers will be taken in house instead of paying agency fees, the council dont want to do this however even though it would save edinburgh tax payers millions. 3) Fact....i am a staunch SNP voter, Donator, Member and will be writing to Alex Salmond asking him to explain how after the council has been told that the public sector bidders bid is flawed and unnacheivable is his party still willing to offer it to them anyway. I am not one

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51

Exiled Leither

Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 03:28 AM

If the council bin men reckon they could save 45 million pounds then why were they not doing it already which would have saved the need for all this hassle??

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50

Captain Kirk

Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 12:04 AM

#49 blue moon : No, sorry, so that makes 2 at least now. Too many chums - oops :) #48 nickcgardiner: worthy try indeed, but Jim was never a numbers man, and to call it a dossier betrays the endeavours of many to produce an alternative successful plan for Edinburgh's future. Dodgy? ... it aint!

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49

blue moon

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 11:14 PM

*46 Would the temporary employee be a backshift supervisor who was in the job 5 mins before being given a supervisors post because his brother is you know who?

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48

nickcgardner

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 10:43 PM

#46 Captain Kirk: Mr Spock and Leonard McCoy know that the real Jim Kirk is a Democrat who stands up for the right of the people to be heard. He can also do sums, and see through a dodgy dossier when he sees one. They have duly recruited Odo who has exposed you as a Changeling :-(

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47

The Genuine Mario Antionette

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 10:42 PM

The SNP will bankrupt the Capital - & they will ruin Scotland if the people vote for Independence.

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46

Captain Kirk

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 10:29 PM

Captain's blog stardate 261011 Just docked the ship in time and wonder what all the shenanigans are at this late date by the SNP ... or do I know already? The Enterprise bid offers a saving of possibly £27m and clearly the SNP group on the council are considering the wrong big E ... saving their Exit at the next council elections over E for Efficiency over the longer term. This so called Alternative Business Model programme seems to offer a cranking up of services at cheaper cost to ratepayers. I downloaded the council papers for tomorrow (you can too) and the proposals look robust and achievable. As usual, politics and short term personal survival seem to be the order for tomorrow's Council meeting. Why don't they stop staring at their jockey-pants and instead look to the long term future for Edinburgh. Turley & Bruce at the Council are putting forward admirable recommendations on ABM, but I also spotted an oddity buried in other papers - a recommendation to promote a temporary contract official to a senior position. Strange. Anyway, tomorrow will be a dramatic decision today at Council and if they have some balls, we won't be left with a further TRAMatic result. Mr Scott is checking the level of dilithium crystals ... just in case.

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45

judgedredd777

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 10:03 PM

All that the council management see is £sd and how much can I brag to the Councilors. Have they forgotten the main reason that management at the council is there for, Best Value from the inhouse workforce, Now read on........................................... .Audits and Inspections Best Value Audit The most recent Best Value Audit of the Council was carried out by Audit Scotland in 2006. The Council received an overwhelmingly positive review. The report highlighted many examples of good service and commended the Council's commitment to improvement. Audit Scotland are currently preparing for the second Best Value Audit of the City of Edinburgh Council . Further information can be obtained at the Audit Scotland website.

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44

George Coutts

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 09:52 PM

Answer this are you an elected public council or a private company!!!!!!!! For christs sake its the BIN MEN not Fuel Rod Disposal from Dounray!!!!!!!!

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43

Sensible Bloke

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 09:06 PM

In my opinion it's unfair to blame Council staff for this..it was the Lib SNP administration that requested the ABM programme and could have stopped it at any time. To put over 3,000 staff (there are another two streams on top of this where a decision is required) through 2 years of uncertaintyabout their future in my opinion is a disgrace.

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42

Aristippus

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 08:58 PM

So the SNP want to give another chance to the workers running our bin service. These being the very same workers that have held the City to ransom for two years with industrial action and work to rule during the week but all willing to work at weekends on overtime rates to catch up on the work they should have already done. The workers that refused to drive in the snow last year for weeks on end and left us with rotting and stinking refuse whilst other key workers in the City managed to get about. The same ones that refused to help grit our streets when they were needed. Are these the same ones that cant empty my bin or my boxes at all some weeks and when i ask why just swear and hurl abuse at me or my wife. And are they the same ones that can be seen regularly parked up during their shift for over an hour at a time with cigarette smoke coming out of their cabs, all reading the papers whilst I am paying their wages. They can have two more chances from me - Fat Chance and No Chance!

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41

archie leach

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 08:29 PM

Mark Turley's position is looking rather difficult. He failed to deliver on the proposed housing stock transfer. He was unable to align Waste Services with the new Modernising Pay obligations. Another failure. Now it appears that his plan to extricate himself from that debacle (privatisation) is near to collapse. Twenty years as a departmental director is quite long enough. What's even more scary is that the bloke could still have another 14 years at the helm. Call it a day. Things could have been even worse, however. He could have been the Chief Executive.

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40

SarahB

Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at 07:30 PM

Jock in the box (31) - "Would you be in favour of a return to the previous Labour council which left the city with a 100 mllion pound deficit to overcome. not to mention their glorious tram scheme?" With the prudential borrowing figure set to top £1.5 billion in the near future and the SNP group's recent shenanigans regarding the tram project, I am not sure those are the best arguments to advance in support of the SNP. I make no mention of the scandal in the wings re the property conservation department or the hideous pressures our schools and care homes are facing due to constant budget cut-backs at the hands of this administration, in particular. I thought the previous Labour administration was the worst ever but it has been well and truly trounced by the current useless, incompetent, arrogant, patronising, money-squandering, heads-in-the-clouds fools we have had to tolerate for the past few years.

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