By Graham Smith The row over Cornwall Council’s proposal to outsource a £150 million 30-year sheltered housing scheme to a controversial national company looks set to trigger a review of…
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This proposed outsourcing arrangement brings echoes of a smaller outsourcing scheme whereby Cornwall Council gifted three multi occupation premises including one in Newquay to a private company. The deal being the company took ownership of the buildings from our council at no cost and the company in return would refurb and service the properties to accommodate vulnerable folk at a full commercial rate to be paid for 20 years. Sadly the Newquay property then after full refurbishment was left empty for reasons baffling for a number of years, though disturbingly the contract stipulated the private company got paid full whack as if it was fully tenanted. Eventually the Newquay property was tenanted. I believe some £20 million pounds was the figure for the deal. An extremely wasteful exercise. Cornwall council gave away three large properties in their (our) ownership to a private company and signed up to a very ill thought out financial commitment. Questions asked of the council at the time were met with the response that no information on the matter could be released publicly on the matter due to an embargo on releasing to scrutiny “commercially sensitive information” …..indeed.
The cabinet system is a buffer to prevent elected members from challenging the failures and incompetence of senior management which continually shows it is not fit for purpose. The buck stops at the top where the problem lays.
The first step to improving democracy would be to “get shot of” the cabinet system.