BASILDON Council may soon privatise more jobs in its drive to cut costs.

A report to councillors suggests the work of the eight staff who look after the maintenance of its vehicles, might be done more cheaply by a private company.

Officials are recommending the Tory-controlled council should force its maintenance staff to bid for their jobs against private contractors.

Some councillors have fear farming out such work could cause more problems than it solved.

Last month, the council warned grass-cutting contractor English Landscapes it was unhappy with the way it was leaving some patches of grass uncut for weeks.

The complaints arose just two months after the company started a £1.2million, five-year contract for the work.

Lynda Gordon, Labour opposition group leader, said: “The vehicle maintenance team has always provided an excellent service, so it’s disappointing the council is thinking about tendering out.

“There is a history of the current administration privatising services, and then those services proving to be pretty poor.”

The council vehicle team looks after 130 vehicles and 100 other items of pieces of equipment.

The team has a workshop servicing and repairs are carried out. It also does MoT testing and inspects taxi and private hire vehicles for roadworthyness. Private contractors may be asked to tender for some or all the work carried out by the team.

Malcolm Buckley, councillor responsible for the environment, said the council had not yet decided what to do. He added: “What we’ve said is we will go to the market and see what’s on offer.

“We don’t know whether we are getting value for money with our in-house service. It might be the cost effective outcome is to keep it in-house. If this were a privatising process, we would say thats what it was, but it’s not.”