Council to let private body run services

GLASGOW Council is looking at plans to hand over the running of its parks, litter collection and street cleaning to a private firm.

Senior officials from the local authority, Scotland's biggest, will this week travel to England to hold talks with a company called Enterprise plc.

Several Scottish councils, including Edinburgh, have already made moves to hand over some of their services to private firms. But such a decision would mark a massive change of heart for Glasgow, which is one of the last bastions of Labour local government north of the Border.

The council intends to lose 4,000 workers over the next three years and is desperately seeking ways to balance its books.

It will face a stiff fight from trade unions, however, if it tries to contract out traditional council roles to the private sector.

Mike Kirkby, the chairman of Unison and the union's Glasgow organiser, yesterday said: "Where similar arrangements have been established in some areas of England there is clear evidence that the standard of service has been adversely affected."

The talks with Enterprise are expected to centre on the Land and Environmental Services department in the council, which deals with civil parks, cleansing and rubbish collections.

A spokesman for the council said it regularly reviewed its operations to see if they were efficient. He added: "In that context, LES is starting the process of examining how others handle the balance between in-house provision and the use of external contractors and existing arm's-length agencies. Officers are at a very early stage of that process and proposals will come forward in due course."

Enterprise plc describes itself as a "support services company that provides infrastructure maintenance services" for large organisations in the public and private sectors.