Full Council Meeting

At the full council meeting on Wednesday the Council took the important decision to progress towards outsourcing functions to the private sector. The Council will issue invitations to tender for it's IT and customer service functions to 5 private consortiums. The Council will is also ask for prices for running other services like HR and property services.

The decision to proceed was supported unanimously by all three parties, although the final decision on whether to outsource will be taken at a future Council meeting.

The Council also had represenatation on a number of issues. We heard from the Southampton Pensioners Forum who were concerned about Council cuts that would penalise the elderly. I was pleased to confirm that the Conservative Group won't be supporting proposed increased charges for care packages or the 3/4m pound proposed cuts to care packages. I was also pleased to be able to explain that the Conservative Group has always objected to any increases in Council Tax above the rate of inflation, as such increases always hit those on fixed incomes like pensioners the worst.

We also heard from volunteers from Millbrook Farm who were concerned that the Council would slash their funding. Again we were able to explain that the Conservatives would not cut this.

The actual budget won't be set until February but January's Council meeting touched on some of the issues that we will be facing.