BRIGG OFFICES CENTRAL TO PUBLIC PURSE SAVINGS

Hewson House council offices in Station Road, Brigg

Brigg is now at the centre of an interesting pooling of resources by North Lincolnshire Council and a neighbouring unitary authority.
On July 1, North and North East Lincolnshire Councils started a joint local taxation and benefit service that will save taxpayers £1.3m.
The shared service is now delivering:

• Housing and council tax benefits
• Collection of council tax and non-domestic rates
• Management and administration of the services

The service will be delivered across the two sites – Hewson House in Brigg (Station Road) and Civic Centre at Cleethorpes, with employees remaining at their current work base, but working as one team.
Designated employees from both councils will have immediate access to any necessary data in accordance with the Data Protection Act.  But each council will maintain their own records.
Telephone calls will continue to be routed through each council’s individual call centre and face-to-face enquiries will continue to be delivered n the normal way at both councils.
Voluntary redundancies and retirements, coupled with careful handling of vacancies has meant that there will be no compulsory redundancies.
Coun Neil Poole, of Messingham, cabinet member for policy and resources at North Lincolnshire Council, said: “Sharing services makes sense as it enables a more efficient, joined up approach and saves taxpayers money.  
“North and North East Lincolnshire Council were providing separate services but very similar – to their residents.  And this just does not make good business sense, when you think how close we are to our counterparts in Grimsby.
“The new arrangement is working well, and while too early to say exactly how much money we have saved as we’ve only just started the new arrangement, I am confident that we will be able to save around £1.3m over the next few years.”
Coun Darren Billard, portfolio holder for finance, governance and support services at North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “It’s really pleasing to see these plans come to fruition. It makes good financial sense for us to work with our neighbouring authority when delivering some services, and the fact that we can save so much money in this situation is proof of that.”