Essex County Council 'outsourcing' scheme could take work abroad (From Echo)

This is madness!!

Both the Conservative and Labour parties are not listening to the population.

I hope a Political leader soon comes forth that talks for the silent majority that have had enough of all this Political Correctness.

evilc -- what on earth does privatisation have to do with political correctness?

What on earth is going on here?

In one breath Essex CC talks of saving post offices, introducing banks and other measures to help the people of the County and now we have plans to outsource work abroad.

Stuff the argument about protectionism - "the Lord helps those that help themselves" should be our motto. This is a County Council not some private enterprise gambling with shareholders money. Stop this idea in its tracks now.

While we are on the subject, was there any deal struck as a result of the latest "trade mission" to India? and if so who is buying and who is selling? The enquiry starts now.

Lord Hanningfield needs to save us much money as possible from the salary bill to try and justify the fact that he pays himself more than the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is paid.
On the other hand, maybe we can look forward to a large reduction in our council tax!!

Jaybe wrote:
Lord Hanningfield needs to save us much money as possible from the salary bill to try and justify the fact that he pays himself more than the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, is paid. On the other hand, maybe we can look forward to a large reduction in our council tax!!

Maybe also we can look forward to trying to explain to some Indo/Asian call centre that we haven't had our weekly (sorry fortnightly) bin collection or that there is a large pothole in the road. Boot the whole idea into touch!

does this mean they are going to demolish that hideous lump of so called architecture 'the basildon centre' and build us a nice new library.


just think how many flats they could stick up on the site instead!

How can crooks get caught and punished for money laundering. Yet councillors laundering their job descriptions and coining it in at our expense get away scot free?

If the dozy councillors arent up to the job, sack them and put someone in who can and will handle it. It's impossible to complain about the slobs now, and get them to do a proper job. Imagine what it will be like when they go offshore. B******crooks.

I read this article with interest, as I am a Unison Rep and work for ECC. It is truly shocking what Lord Hanningfield is proposing. I have sent him two emails now via his own blog site, and he has not had the decency to reply, prehaps he is to busy visiting India! In respect of the two companies left waiting to grab out public services, IBM who's consortium is Serco Education and W S Atkins, and T Systems, consortium, Tata Consulting Services, Vertex, P A Consulting and Drivers Jonas. It makes me wonder who is in bed with who! Tata Consulting Services were a bidder in their own right, until they were dropped in February 09 by Ecc, they have now joined forces with T Sytems? Trillium have been replaced by Serco Education and are now working with IBM! These consortiums have changed and it makes you wonder about the legality of this who procurement process. I am sick and tired of hearing Lord Hanningfield bang on about the Post Offices he has saved, lets just get things right, he saved two sub post offices, thats it. The Bank of Essex is nothing but a pulicity stunt, and he should put his money where his mouth is and put a stop to bringing this county to its knees. You only have to drive past the Park and Ride on a week day around 9.30 am to see that 100 + spaces are still available, some 6 months ago this Park and Ride would have been full, this shows in my mind how many people have since lost their jobs and no longer need the once needed facility. If as predicted 6500 jobs are at risk at Essex County Council, then what impact will this have on our local services? Not to mention the dreaded Indian Call Centre's. Local people are appauled at this thought, yet Lord Hanningfield has said that one of the two companies left will get the contract two oursource our public services, and this will begin in August this year! So what can the people of Essex do? They can write to their local MP, they can sign an online petition at Unisonessex.gov.uk, they can also join a lobby of the full council meeting being held on the 21st April 2009 at County Hall. Without showing our disgust in numbers we can only pray that the fall out from this madness will not be as huge as we fear.
This deal will include education in Essex, as Serco are included, and god know's what else? You only have to look at the mess Essex made of selling of all 10 of their Elderly Peoples homes to Excel Care in 2005, 4 have since been shut down. BT contract terminated 3 years early at a cost of 120 million pounds, Tax Payers money. 4 Million pounds have been spent by Essex on spin and consultancy fees to get this deal through! Transparancy is what the people of Essex want, and improved services in house not sold out to private money grabbing firms only interested in their own profits and shareholders bonuses!!! It makes me sick!!!!!