Tories Obsessed with Privatisation- Whether it is Economic or Not

For several years, Epping forest Conservatives have been making a dong and dance about the cost and poor management of Epping Forest District Council Leisure Services.

Against national comparisons, it is relatively low-spending and, according to a company bidding to manage the Council's Leisure Centres, it has good management. They have also made a lot of fuss about the new Loughton leisure Centre which is now proving a great success with the public.

They should remember that, as part of a hung council, they agreed with the need to replace the old pools and the choice of contractor and that no-one can predict weather or operating efficiency.

Outsourcing of leisure centre management has been investigated for nearly two years by a working group which inspected nine organisations and had eliminated all except one, a private company, Sport and Leisure Management. At the end of the of the process, LSM was seeking variations to its deal to shield it from the risk of future cost rises. The working group's recommendation to Cabinet and Council not to pursue this bid because it ran the risk of not fulfilling the original intention to reduce costs was overturned by the Conservative group and its allies.

Councillor Ann Haigh, former EFDC Leisure Committee chair and County Council Candidate for Buckhurst Hill and Loughton South said, "At the previous Cabinet meeting the Portfolio holder had failed to answer the opinion of long-standing working group that the financial risks of a contract with the company were too high to ensure that the centres would cost less to run in the future".

Cllr Michael Heavens, EFDC Liberal Democrat leader and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate, supporting a proposal to investigate Trust management said, "Leisure Centre management needs to be given more independence and the ability to make commercial decisions. The trust would have to operate within agreed expenditure parameters and have an agreed level of capital provision based on a thoroughly researched business plan to achieve a flat or tapering level of annual new expenditure".

He continued, "If the next Council meeting doesn't not vote for this option at the second try, and negotiations with SLM break down, the Tory Portfolio holder will have to continue to depend on existing management that he has frequently and unfairly vilified. The Tories are obsessed with privatisation- whether it is economic or not."