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'Commercial sensitivity' invoked to protect details of Havant Borough Council deal
He's the leader of a council and represents tens of thousands of taxpayers.
But Tony Briggs doesn't want any of them to know details of a multi-million pound deal to privatise services.
Since December last year the public – and The News – have been repeatedly banned from discussions about Havant Borough Council's deal with Capita.
On each occasion it has used the Local Government Act to debate the issue behind closed doors as the council says it's 'commercially sensitive'.
Just last week councillors met in secret to give the go-ahead to the deal.
Campaigners have now rounded on Councillor Briggs saying his Tory-run authority should be more open about the deal.
A 900-signature petition calling for public consultation over the contract has so far gone unheeded.
Councillor Terry Hart, leader of the Havant Labour party, said: 'I don't believe there was commercially sensitive information discussed.
'I don't see any reason why the general public and the press shouldn't be allowed in. I think the public deserve to know – it's their money we're spending, not ours.'
The total cost of the deal is 50m. Phase one sees Capita taking control of customer services and the extension of its revenues and benefits contract by four years.
Phase two, which has not yet been agreed, includes the privatising of the council's property, finance, support services and print and design sections.
Cllr Briggs said he didn't know the exact breakdown of the costs for each phase, and even if he did he would not reveal them.
But Lib Dem Faith Ponsonby said phase one was in the region of 1m.
Capita would look to save 7.1m on what it currently costs the council to do the work by running services more efficiently.
Union leaders have expressed fears over jobs as part of the Capita deal, with campaigners protesting outside the civic offices last week.
But Cllr Briggs claimed the contract 'guarantees up to 100 new jobs'.
He added that 'legal and financial issues' were discussed at last week's meeting but refused to go into any further detail. 'Local authorities have done this for years,' he said. 'This is nothing new.'
Cllr Briggs, who represents Cowplain on the borough council, added: 'It affects them (residents) in a positive way – we are saving money. In these economic times we can't afford for the rates to keep going up and the measures we are taking are to alleviate that.'
But when pressed on why the public were not allowed into the meetings, he said: 'If you want to talk about secrecy, forget it.'
RECORD OF SECRECY
These are the times when the press and public have been excluded by Havant Borough Council.
Havant Borough Council used Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 to ban The News and the public from seven meetings where the Capita bid was discussed.
Strategy and Regeneration Board (scrutiny): July 10; June 10; May 26; May 20.
Cabinet: previously known as the Executive: July 15; December 10, 2008.
Full Council: July 22.
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