08:25 Wednesday 16th September 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
DOTTY MCLEOD: A review of Cambridgeshire County Council’s decision to allow a private company to take over part of Cambridge Central Library has found seven key opportunities for improvement. These cover areas including confidentiality, project management and public consultation. This Library Enterprise Centre project as it was called was very very controversial a few months ago. Our Political Reporter Hannah Olsson looks back on the story’s developments.
HANNAH OLSSON: Money saving plans to turn much of the third floor of Cambridge Central Library into a privately-run enterprise zone proved very controversial, with nearly 4,000 people signing a petition against the idea. The County Council vote came down to the wire, with six members of a thirteen strong committee voting against it, and seven for it. Councillors requested the decision to be looked at again, and in the meantime allegations emerged questioning the credibility of Kora, the private company behind the plan. So the Council decided to take back their decision, and the enterprise zone idea was shelved. Even more controversy followed because a Freedom of Information request showed that although the idea was only talked about publicly in March this year, senior council officials had held almost forty meetings with Kora, after being approached by them back in 2013. All leading to questions about trust, transparency and accountibility.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Well councillor Mike Shellens has been leading the review of this process, and has compiled a report which has been published in the last 24 hours. It will be discussed by councillors next week. Mike.
MIKE SHELLENS: Morning Dotty,
DOTTY MCLEOD: Hello. Can you summarise for us your headline findings?
MIKE SHELLENS: I think the key finding right at the top is that there was no illegality in this. people were using best endeavours. They .. at no stage did anybody .. has anybody suggested that there’s been anything untoward. Had that not been the case, had there been evidence or suggestions of malpractice, then the report would have been extremely different.
DOTTY MCLEOD: But you acknowledge in your report that mistakes were made. So what kind of things are you referrring to there?
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