Shared council IT service move approved

Council bosses in Cannock and Stafford have approved the first stage of shared services to save £190,000.

Cannock Chase District Council and Stafford Borough Council - who have already said staff are working together on some services - are to pool services on IT and building control from November.

Together this will save £190,000.

There are also plans afoot to implement shared control from next April on revenues and benefits, legal services, human resources, finance, internal audit, insurance, risk management, civil contingencies and procurement.

Leader of Cannock Chase Council, Councillor Neil Stanley, said frontline services would not be affected.

He said: "It will be back office services: Central administration, payroll, human resources, building control, IT - not front line services, so it won't include leisure, street cleaning, or refuse collection."

Bosses at Stafford Borough Council ruled out making immediate job cuts as part of the programme. Malcolm Vickers, deputy chief executive at Stafford Borough Council, also said if the opportunity arose to share a chief executive then that could be looked at.

Mr Vickers said: "This sharing of services is not just about people. It's a way we can do things more effectively.

"We do not know the exact scale of savings yet - but all the messages show that we are going to have to make some savings.

"The Government has so far talked about making 25 per cent of savings for the next five years. This sharing of services is about taking advantage of that."