Plans to transfer Hart District Council’s IT, human resources and finance departments and its contact centre to a private company have come under attack.

The council is in the process of negotiating a deal that would see responsibility for these services taken on by BT for seven years.

As part of the deal the council will benefit from new computer systems and the expertise of BT’s specialist staff.

But Unison, the trade union for council workers, said the move needed very careful consideration in light of the economic climate.

Unison said many council employees feared they would have to move miles from their current homes if they wanted to keep their jobs.

It also said that if councillors chose to approve the plans, which would see the services run remotely from Ipswich, taxpayers would see a deterioration in the service they receive.

Caroline Villiers, Unison regional officer, is particularly worried about a recent announcement that 10,000 jobs will be cut by the telecommunications giant.

The company blamed a drop in earnings from its global services unit for the cuts and Mrs Villiers said council staff who face being transferred to the company are fearful.

She said: "If the staff were worried before I would say that they are exceptionally worried now and I’m sure the public would rather have their services dealt with locally.

"I want the council to carefully look at the funding behind BT before they hand over their core services.

"Unison would always prefer for council services that are paid for by the council tax by the people of Hart, remain in Hart.

"I think people have a right to know that they can go and speak to someone in housing benefit department or whatever, and know that it’s someone in the town.

"Staff are worried they will have to move to Ipswich or that as people leave the people who are left behind are going to have to pick up more and more work.

"Most councils in North Hampshire are not in the financial position of Hart so they are not having to take these measures."

"Scare-mongering"

Mrs Villiers said that the changes were likely to affect 30 to 35 employees and said serious consideration should be given to privatising during a period of recession.

She has written to Geoff Bonner, chief executive of Hart, urging the council to reject the decision to outsource its services.

In her letter, she wrote: "The purpose of councillors is to run local services and selling off your departments will not give you the ability to truly run you own issues and serve the community as you would wish."

But Mr Bonner said transferring the services meant that the council was able to serve local people more effectively.

He said; "One of our problems as a council is that we are small and under funded and that makes it difficult for us to get any economy of scale or expertise amongst staff.

"By going with a big supplier we are able to offer people who are used to dealing with that kind of thing.

"I’m sure that members of our staff are feeling a little uncertain at the moment but we have had a trip to Ipswich with the staff to show them how this work is being done for another district council and I think people were reassured by that.

"I am not expecting lots of staff to move to Ipswich as a result of this and from a public point of view I’m not sure people will notice much difference at all."

He said he was surprised to receive the "scare-mongering" letter from Unison as the union had been involved in discussions and seemed happy with the plans.

Mr Bonner hopes that the framework for the deal will be in place by Christmas with changes likely to come in April next year.

A spokesman for BT said: "Having looked at this and bearing in mind there is no actual agreement at the moment, BT does not feel it's appropriate to comment on what is an issue between the council and the union."