Job cut fears as councils move closer to service mergers (From Wimbledon Guardian)

Union fears job cuts as councils move closer to service mergers

7:50am Saturday 26th February 2011 in News By Martin George

A trade union said it feared for the future of council jobs after Kingston Council moved a step closer to merging services with four neighbouring authorities.

Kingston, Richmond, Croydon, Merton and Sutton councils agreed to explore ways of sharing responsibilities to cut millions of pounds from their costs in a shake-up of local Government in south-west London.

The effect on jobs and the exact savings to all councils is not yet known.

However, Kingston Council leader Councillor Derek Osbourne refuted suggestions the move followed the example of Hammersmith and Fulham, which is merging all its services with Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea to save taxpayers £100m a year.

He said the arrangement, which is still being discussed and will be formally signed on March 21, would work on a “pick and mix” basis.

But GMB’s Nadine Houghton said the union had not been approached about the changes and was concerned about the effect on jobs and the community.

She said: “If the council decides to share services will this mean it requires fewer staff?

“What about the specialist knowledge required to deal with specific areas, will this diminish, and will services for the public suffer as a result?”

Coun Osbourne said the borough was working with Sutton on ICT, and talking about doing joint audits with Richmond.

He said: “It is a commitment to joint working where that is in the best interests of the boroughs, but not necessarily all boroughs as one.

“Richmond is doing some work with Hillingdon on some services and Hounslow on others. It is a pick and mix, and not the Hammersmith and Fulham model.

“We are looking at how we might pool some of our education and children’s services, but there is a long way to go.

“There are all sorts of stuff about control and making sure key elements of services are not getting out of the control.”

Conservative Kingston councillors have called for the authorities to join their electoral and legal services, trading standards, audit and environmental health and also to link their contracted social care.

Howard Jones, leader of the opposition, said: “They should have done this ages ago, and I look forward to seeing proposals on the table that will make some savings.

“Let us stop talking about it and get on with it.

“We should be getting some benefits from it sooner rather than later.”