06.05.11
‘Virtual council’ halts outsourcing project
Suffolk County Council has halted radical outsourcing plans after electing a new leader and putting its chief executive on ‘personal leave’.
The Conservative-controlled authority faced public and staff opposition to its ‘virtual council’ proposals, which would have seen virtually all of its services, including child protection, handed over to the private, voluntary and charity sectors.
The newly-elected Conservative group leader, Mark Bee, told the Guardian newspaper that the whole plan was under review, but added: “It’s not going to be about ‘no more cuts’ and keeping things as they are; things have got to change, but it is finding the right kind of change rather than just steaming into it.”
The Lib Dem opposition welcomed the pause in the programme.
The council’s chief executive, Andrea Hill, has been the subject of much press interest due to her £218,000 salary, management style, and taxpayers’ money spent on consultants, coaching and photographs. She did not return to work this week after a pre-planned holiday, and is reported to be on ‘extended personal leave’. Former Conservative council leader Jeremy Pembroke was a keen supporter of Hill prior to stepping down on April 1 2011.
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