HIGH ranking Labour councillors have insisted that possible plans to contract out more than 175 key council jobs to a private company are far from cut and dried.

Splits have recently appeared in the ruling Labour group on Blackburn with Darwen Council over negotiations which have taken place with the company Capita about the possible move.

Town hall bosses announced in December they were looking at the possibility of entering into a partnership with a private professional support organisation in areas such as internal finance, personnel, property and information technology.

The move could see more than 175 existing council staff transferred to a business centre and become employees of a private company working for the authority.

Former council leader Coun Peter Greenwood and his Labour colleague Don Rishton, have publicly condemned the move and did so again at a full meeting of the council. Coun Greenwood said: "If this goes ahead it will be the thin end of the wedge. Once this starts it will never stop and we will just end up being an administrative body."

Council leader Malcolm Doherty and his deputy Coun Gail Barton, made their first public responses to the criticisms from within their own Labour group.

Coun Barton said: "This is a process of discovery and finding things out and is not just about Capita or any other individual organisation.

"The theme at the moment is that councils should compete and compare. If companies who come to us show us what they can do and that does not compare favourably with what the council does at the moment, we will not go ahead with this.

Coun Malcolm Doherty said: "We will only do this if we are convinced it is the right things to do for the people of the borough. This is not a case of hiving off or selling off. This would be a partnership."

Conservative councillors said they would back any plans to involve a private company.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.