Future of the Council's Catering Services

4.32.53pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 9th Oct 2006

The Council's in-house catering service is likely to make a loss of £165,000 this year - and probably more in future years. These losses are ultimately covered by the council taxpayers of Milton Keynes. This situation clearly cannot be allowed to continue.

Cabinet members and senior staff have been looking at options for the future of the catering service. The information that has been shared with cabinet members so far has been about how to stem the financial losses. Detailed information about the impact on other Council services, such as schools, and how this can be overcome, has not yet been finalised by senior staff.

No formal decision has yet been taken about the future of the catering service. A draft cabinet report for 17th October was withdrawn as there was still a lot of work to do, particularly around the implications for the one-third of schools that use the Council's catering services. Cabinet members will not allow a paper to come forward for a decision until all issues are resolved satisfactorily and they do not believe that they are anywhere near that position yet.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Isobel McCall, Leader of the Council, said: "No decision has been taken yet about the future of the Council's catering services. We cannot allow the losses to continue but we will ensure that schools and other Council services are not left in the lurch. It is only fair for staff working in the service, and schools, to be alerted to the possibility that the service may close. But I am very angry that this has been communicated as fact when, at this stage, it is only an option.

"There is still a lot of work to do to sort out how the needs of the schools, in particular, can be met and to allow the Cabinet to make an informed decision."