Fears for the Future

On Monday the Cabinet of 9 will decide the future of Council Services for Cornwall. Over the last year we have seen many services taken out of the Council to be delivered in future by a variety of different models.

The Leisure Trust, Cornwall Housing Ltd and Cormac Solutions have made a successful transition but only because they are run by the same people delivering their services in the same way as before.

ERP, the new finance management system, put in place to enable the next step, has not performed as it should. It has been impossible to issue purchase orders or to pay invoices in some instances. The system is a nightmare for officers unable to get on with their core jobs.

The waste contract as we know fell flat on its face at least in the SE of Cornwall and I believe in many other parts.

On Monday the decision as to whether to go out to tender on a Joint Venture, which will hand control of the new company to a commercial organisation, to provide a huge range of services from the running of one stop shops and libraries to the Telehealth programme for NHS patients, encompassing ERP, computer services and much more, will be taken. Once that process starts it will be an unstoppable juggernaut tying Cornwall into contracts for at least the next 10 years.

The process has been rushed and there are still too many questions and not enough choice for this to be safe to do. It should at least be a full council decision on an issue of such magnitude and posing such threats to our future.