Shropshire Council company ip&e facing the axe

The authority has announced that its cabinet will consider an item about ip&e in confidential session next week.

The company, which was set up by the council's former leader Keith Barrow, has been under review since he was replaced by Councillor Malcolm Pate in December.

It is understood that the staff working for ip&e, which include the communications team, as well as seconded staff under planning and regulatory services, will be moved back to the council.

There will be no job losses proposed as part of the move.

Last month the council's chief executive, Clive Wright, confirmed that the company was being reviewed in terms of is performance on council contracts and those secured with other organisations.

He said: "We are currently carrying out an internal review of ip&e to look at routine things such as the performance of the company as part of its term strategic contract with the council, as well as its performance in relation to the external contracts it has won.

"Since the review started, just before Christmas, a cross-party group has been set up and the leader has assigned his deputy portfolio holder in the newly constituted cabinet to oversee the process."

Councillor Alan Mosley, leader of the council's Labour group, said they had opposed the idea of ip&e since it was set up.

He said: "Clearly everything is confidential prior to the cabinet meeting but I and the Labour Group have been clear in our opposition to ip&e and have challenged and opposed the way in which it has been set up and has worked since it was conceived."

Liberal Democrat Councillor for Ludlow North, Andy Boddington said he was unsurprised about but had "mixed feelings" about the company's demise.

He said: "ip&e had the worst business model ever, it had no chance of surviving.

"Shropshire Council had a plan to commission out all it is services and everything it didn't commission out it was going to dump into ip&e and it simply did not make any money.

"I have mixed feelings. We could have set up some social enterprise companies to do things. We could have done a lot of entrepreneurial things that would have helped our county at a very difficult time. Instead we have wasted our time, and the time of some very talented staff, with ip&e."

Accounts released for the company last year showed that it had made its first profit of £28,029, and achieved revenue of £1.162 million.

However, sales to Shropshire Council amounted to £1.145 million - meaning sales to non-council organisations had only amounted to £16,617.