Has districts' co-operation plan been derailed?
The neighbouring boroughs announced in September that they were expanding an existing agreement and taking on senior managers to oversee newly-combined departments.
But the cabinet member in charge of the process at Conservative-run South Ribble told a meeting of the full council that Labour-controlled Chorley was reluctant to move at the originally-planned pace.
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Hide AdColin Clark, who was recently reappointed to the Corporate Support brief, said he had always championed the idea and wanted to see it move forward.
“There was a long delay in deciding what the structure should be so that it met the needs of the services we share at the moment - and also any additional services in future.
“Chorley were quite reticent about moving at my pace...and I have tried to push this forward as quickly as I can,” Cllr Clark said.
In a statement issued after the meeting in Leyland, leader of Chorley Council, Alistair Bradley, said: “We’re fully committed to sharing more services with South Ribble and we’re currently developing how the model will best work and a timeline for what will happen when.
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Hide Ad“We expect this piece of work to be done over the next few months and we’ll be looking to recruit to the new shared services posts in May/June,” Cllr Bradley added.
Labour opposition group leader at South Ribble, Paul Foster, said the shared services expansion had “died a death” after the latest change of leadership at the authority. The council had three different leaders - including Cllr Foster himself - in the space of as many weeks in October.
“You can’t blame Chorley for not wanting to enter into any shared services with us at the moment - they will await the results of the election in May,” he said.
Cllr Clark called for the authorities to make a joint statement to update staff and residents after a meeting which he hopes will be held between the boroughs in January
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Hide AdThe two councils agreed to combine their legal and human resources functions three months ago. Four new shared posts will be created, with a director and assistant director being recruited for the existing and new areas of co-operation.
The districts have shared their their financial and assurance departments for several years. That arrangement is estimated to save the councils £500,000 per year between them.