Shared service arrangement between Richmond and Wandsworth finalised, but labelled 'reckless' and 'undemocratic' by opponents

The arrangement, struck in the face of swingeing Government cuts, means staff will be jointly employed under a single chief executive and could mean as many as 110 jobs are at risk.

Richmond is subject to a 66 per cent reduction in funding over the next four years and Wandsworth to 22 per cent.

The decision to forge a partnership between the two boroughs was criticised by Labour councillor for Teddington, Jennifer Churchill, who argued that sharing more services between Richmond and Kingston would be a better idea.

The two boroughs already share children’s service through Achieving for Children.

Councillor Jennifer Churchill: "It just doesn't make sense.”

The Teddington councillor said: “They already work together on key issues such as policing. Wandsworth is much much larger than Richmond.

“It offers very different services on a very different financial footing. It just doesn't make sense.”

Leader of Wandsworth Council, Ravi Govindia, said there were many synergies between the boroughs, which would be able to learn from one another.

He said: “Trust and faith in each other is by far the most important thing in coming to negotiations about how the services combine.

“We are both high achieving councils and coming together would bring the best of both.”

Richmond leader Lord True added: “We are very comfortable with each other and I have a great amount of respect for Ravi Govindia’s leadership.”

Leader of Richmond’s Liberal Democrats, Gareth Roberts, argued the decision to deny putting the agreement to the electorate in the form of a referendum was “democracy denying.”

He said: “The fact that Nick True wouldn’t give residents their right to vote on whether they want the council to merge with Wandsworth proves he simply doesn’t trust the people of the borough and it adds fuel to the fire that this isn’t the great deal that we’re being led to believe. “If it was the best deal for the borough then he would have grabbed the opportunity to prove it.”

Lord True dismissed the notion of a referendum because the pledge to share services with other boroughs featured in the Conservative election manifesto for 2014.

He said: “This is something we put very clearly to the electorate. I think it is the way of the future.

“We have already done it and share Achieving for Children with Kingston.

“If Gareth Roberts wants to put this to the electorate he is entitled to do that.

“My Lib Dem opponents voted against this but failed to offer a single proposal about how they would fill the [financial] gap.”

An Ofsted report into Wandsworth’s children’s services released in January last year revealed major weaknesses and led to an overhaul of top tier staff, but Cllr Govindia said sharing children’s services with Richmond was never on the table.

Cllr Govindia said: “Children’s services were excluded before the Ofsted report came out."

He admitted: “It was a truly disturbing report in the sense that we didn’t see it coming and thought it was fine.

“We have risen to the challenge and immediately addressed it; once Ofsted step in and give you a bad report they also give you the repair mechanism.”

He added: “We are braced for hard work and are dedicated to getting it right.”

Lord True said many of the staff departures from both councils would be voluntary redundancies and it was hard to give a specific number of jobs that would be lost at this stage.

Lord True said: “As far as possible changes are made by voluntary redundancies so it is very hard to give a precise figure.

“In other cases there will be competition for jobs and we will try to accommodate this in the most positive way possible.”

Opposition leader Councillor Gareth Roberts

Coun Roberts said he believed sharing services with a wider range of boroughs would be more sensible, as it would be easier to withdraw from the deal if it did not work and he feared the larger borough would “swallow up” Richmond.

He said: “This is a potentially irrevocable decision; there is no going back from it.

“If we were going to have a Rexit, for want of a better word, we would not have enough staff and would have to go to market for those positions and it will be very difficult to do.

“All we have been told is this will generate savings of £10million but there is no guarantee.”

Coun Govindia said that, broadly speaking, residents wanted to know if the boroughs would maintain their independence and whether standards of service would deteriorate.

He said: “The answers are very clear: we will remain independent authorities.

“The answer [to the second query] is that is why we are coming together. If we don’t we would inevitably have a deterioration of services.”