COUNCIL ANGER AT
PRIVATE PRISON BOSS SNUB
Privatisation giants Sodexo snub ‘fact
finding mission’ in community claiming contract is with ConDems raising fears
of ‘accountability deficit’.
A Overview and Scrutiny committee meeting set up to probe a
series of incidents at HMP Acklington has been told by French privatisation
giants Sodexo Head of Operations in the UK that he won’t give evidence to the
committee because ‘Sodexo’s contract is with the Ministry of Justice’ not the
local community.
The response has provoked anger as a new ‘scandal’ has hit
the prison with a seizure of class a drugs and local Councillor and
parliamentary hopeful Scott Dickinson has vowed to seek answers from the
company and the Ministry of Justice Secretary of State Chris Grayling about the
failure of the company to provide reassurance for local communities.
Since the prison was privatised, staff numbers have been
reduced by 39% from over 440 to 270. The prison has also seen a riot where
prisoners took over a wing and the latest seizure has sparked fears that the
prison may be ‘powder keg waiting to explode’. The fears have been raised by
NAPO who are now faced with the same company running probation services who
have branded the prison as ‘chaotic’.
Northumberland County Council launched a scrutiny
investigation to explore the impact of the privatisation of Acklington on the
local community and had invited Sodexo along to explain how they saw their role
in the wider community. The snub by Sodexo Head of Operations in the UK Mike
Conway has angered council leaders who say the decision ‘does not bode well for
accountability for the controversial decision by the coalition government to
allow Sodexo to run the North East Probation Service.
Councillor Dickinson
who represents Druridge Bay ward said
‘This is a shocking snub for the local community which needs
to be reassured about the changes at HMP Acklington and for Sodexo to say their
only answerable to Chris Grayling in Whitehall shows how little this ConDem
government and its rush to privatise really value local communities. I can
promise Mr Conway that this council will get to the bottom of the reasons why
he won’t come clean about the company plans for HMP Acklington and I will be
taking this up with the Ministry of Justice. This is totally unacceptable and
the silence coming from local Conservative and Lib Dem politicians on the
privatisation of North Northumberland really is deafening. We’ve seen the
prison shipped out to the private sector with the loss of hundreds of local
jobs, we’ve seen the privatisation of search and rescue at RAF Boulmer, the rushed
sale of the East Coast mainline franchise and we’re now told that Sodexo has
been handed the keys to Northumberland and Tyne and Wear probation services.
We’re now left to pick up the pieces with hundreds of jobs lost and a real lack
of accountability”.
