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NEWS RELEASE
from the
Liberal Democrats on Harlow District Council |
| Contact | Cllr Lorna Spenceley (home 324676, mobile 07930 337596) |
| Release | 23 April 2004 |
Careline - it’s time for the facts
Conservative councillors - backed by Labour - have accused local Liberal Democrats of planning to ‘privatise’ the Council’s Careline service. It’s time to explode the Tory-Labour myths!
Careline – what’s the problem?
Careline offers a 24-hour emergency call facility to older residents. From 6:45am to 11:00pm, Careline calls are answered by specialist Careline staff. At night, they are answered by Harlow Council’s general Central Control staff.
The Careline service needs upgrading to modern standards. This will cost money - money that is not in the council’s budget, and which no party proposed when the budget was set in February.
So what did the politicians propose?
The four options
Option A: do nothing, leaving the service below modern standards.
Option B: upgrade the service, with the council continuing to run it all directly (cost: £74,000 more).
Option C: upgrade the service, but privatise night-time calls (cost: £40,000 more).
Option D: put whole service out to tender (possible cost saving).
The Conservatives
Tory councillors proposed Option C: to privatise night-time calls by transferring them to another provider, and spend £40,000 more on the service. They didn’t explain where they would get the money to pay for this.
The Tories proposed:
| "Option C: the overnight service be transferred to an ASAP-accredited provider with effect from April 2004 and the necessary provision be made in the 2004/05 budget" (Housing Committee report, 16 March 2004) |
Labour
Labour supported the Tory proposal to privatise night-time calls.
The Liberal Democrats
Proposed to put the whole service out to tender (Option D), but with a request for an ‘in-house bid’ from the Council’s own Careline team, so that councillors could judge if this would be better value for money. This was defeated by Labour and the Tories.
Tory-Labour proposals would privatise night-time Careline calls and cost taxpayers more money. What’s the sense in that?
Why do Labour and the Tories pretend to oppose ‘privatisation’ of Careline when they themselves voted to privatise night-time calls - and only the Liberal Democrats wanted to invite a bid from the Council team? Could it be because there’s an election coming on?
Let’s have an end to Tory-Labour myths!
ENDS