Calls for shared services

The Leader of Rochdale Council, Councillor Colin Lambert

Rochdale Liberal Democrats are calling on the Council to consider increasing shared services with other Greater Manchester authorities in a bid to save millions of pounds – something the new Council Leader says he has been calling for over the past year.

The call comes after plans were recently released for the UK’s first a ‘super council’ in London. Three London boroughs – Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea, and Hammersmith and Fulham – hope to save almost £100m by sharing essential services, ranging from education to rubbish collection.

Rochdale and Oldham Council have already begun to share certain services, such as contact centres, with  Oldham's call centre functions transferring over to Rochdale's call centre last September.

The Lib Dems are calling for a further increase, starting with senior management in a bid to save money.

Councillor Dale Mulgrew said: “The joint procurement and sharing of Council services can be a really effective way for our Council to cut costs, whilst continuing to deliver excellent front-line services. Over the last few months we have seen Councils across the country announcing similar plans with the cost savings well into the millions.

He added: “With the Government set to cut funding over the next four years by 28 per cent it seems natural that we should look as soon as possible into following the lead of Councils such as Portsmouth and Southampton and sharing more services. By starting with the cost of senior management we can protect frontline services by sharing them. Within this idea there is a clear scope for massive savings. ”

"The previous leadership of the Council met with the leadership of Oldham Council at the end of November. At this meeting there was a firm request for greater urgency around the shared services agenda, based on a common understanding and a serious political will for this to be progressed quicker. I do hope the incoming Labour administration finds that this is an initiative that they can explore further."

"I represented the Lib Dem group at this meeting and was aware that both Councils were asked to set a target for savings accrued from this joint work for the future. I cannot see why for the 2012/13 budget that the bulk of savings cannot be found through this radical approach we now await to see which services will be considered next for joint working.

The Leader of Rochdale Council, Councillor Colin Lambert has described the calls from the Liberal Democrats as “late.”

He said: “I welcome this very late contribution from the Liberal Democrats. If only they had been listening over the last year, when I have called for greater joint working , when I spoke at the Greater Manchester Summit on 28 July 2010, I called for Rochdale to lead the way including sharing at all levels of management, and this is a policy which Labour running the council we will pursue , it is a major part of our budget preparation , a budget which the Lib Dems have left us only three working weeks to sort out - when they have played it around for 8 months.

 “If they had taken up our original ideas during the summer we could now be well on the way to producing a more balanced and caring set of proposals for the 2011/12 budget.”

Councillor Lambert continued: “Why o why did Dale Mulgrew not do this when he was in Cabinet, why is he now playing games and political posturing?

“Get real Dale, the situation facing Rochdale Borough is very real and remember you walked away, now try a little to grow up and work with us for the best of everyone in the borough.”