County Council Grilled

Somerset County Council was grilled on television last night for mishandling a major contract and trying to cover it up.

The ITV West current affairs programme, West Eye View, was investigating the biggest contract in the Council’s history. The contract joins the Council together with international business giant IBM and others under the name ‘South West One’.

Speaker after speaker tore into the beleaguered Council. There was concern that the Council was being evasive about the number of job losses involved. And they were also slammed for excessive secrecy, going to extraordinary lengths to prevent people from seeing the important details.

Leader of the Conservative Group, Ken Maddock said, “When will the council wake up to the fact it that just cannot behave like this? I want us to have a Council we can be proud of - not one that skulks around in back rooms. We want no ‘dodgy dossiers’ here. This is public money and we are entitled to know what it is being spent on."

“At Wednesday’s fraught meeting of the Council I put a list of ten questions about South West One. These demand answers. We need openness and accountability in all our dealings. Accordingly I have pledged that an incoming Conservative administration in 2009 will be open and accountable about all the progress, costs and savings of the South West One contract. We will give full democratic involvement and oversight in all our dealings.”

25.07.08