Hounslow Council To Speed Up Transfer Of Carillion Contract
Borough's parks and cemeteries managed by failed company
Hounslow Council is to expedite its transfer of services carried out by Carillion to its in-house company as soon as possible. The Council hopes that it will bring the transfer forward by a month, to March, instead of April 9th 2018.
It is not yet clear how this will affect the salaries of the workers currently employed by Carillion to look after maintenance of Hounslow's parks, allotments and cemeteries. They have been guaranteed payment for January by the Carillion liquidator.
We have asked Hounslow Council for comment on the workforce.
The Council issued a statement yesterday (Wednesday 24th January) saying, "As a result of the Carillion involuntary liquidation, Hounslow Council has been looking at ways to transfer the Parks contract to its wholly-owned trading company, Lampton 360, earlier than our previously renegotiated contract end date of 9 April 2018, which was agreed last November.
"Meetings have been taking place with the official receivers so that we can accelerate the transfer of staff from Carillion to GreenSpace 360, the new subsidiary of Lampton360, and we have agreed to bring forward the transfer to 1 March."
Cllr Steve Curran, Leader of the Council, and Cllr Samia Chaudhary, Cabinet Member for Green Policy and Leisure, along with senior officers from the council, met with Carillion staff responsible for parks, allotments and cemeteries contract to discuss ways that an immediate transfer of the contract could be facilitated.
Cllr Curran said, “We understand that there is a high level of anxiety amongst staff with regard to who is going to pay them, and when. The administrators for Carillion previously confirmed that the salaries for January would be paid, but there is currently no guarantee for payments beyond that from the receivers. However, we would like to reassure parks staff that we are doing all we can, as quickly as we can, and will keep them informed of our progress. Meanwhile, we appreciate their efforts in providing a seamless service under such difficult circumstances.”
The Council reached an agreement with Carillion to terminate their contract for parks, cemeteries and allotments last November and they say they are well into the detailed planning for these services to move to Lampton 360, the council’s wholly-owned trading company.
Carillion did manage the boroughs libraries until last summer when that
contract was taken in house six years before the contract was due to end.
January 24, 2018
