Cornwall Council fights to end £260m BT contract

Attempts to reach an amicable end to the deal between the council and BT failed

Cornwall Council is in a court battle to end a £260m contract with BT which it says has failed to meet targets.

BT has issued an injunction preventing the council from ending the contract after just two years.

The 10-year deal was signed in March 2013 for BT to run IT, human resources, document management and other services for the council.

But a report to the council said BT had failed on performance and jobs and was in "material breach" of its contract.

A Strategic Partnership Review by the council in April said BT had promised it would create at least 197 extra jobs in Cornwall over the life of the contract.

It also said 111 of those would be delivered in the first two years, but only 35 had been created.

The review added that BT had received nearly £25m over the first two years of the contract.

But the state of service delivery had been "generally downward" since BT took over, according to the council, with just 38 per cent of targets delivered.

TIMELINE

• March 2013: Deal signed with BT Cornwall

• April 2015: Strategic Partnership Review criticises failure of BT to meet the guarantees it provided when the deal was signed

• May 2015: BT is fined more than £100,000 for contract failures

• June 2015: Council tells BT it wants to end contract

• July 2015: Council enters "standstill agreement" in order to "facilitate negotiations for an amicable termination". However an amicable termination could not be negotiated

• August 2015: BT Cornwall files an application with the High Court to seek an injunction preventing the council from terminating the agreement

• 1 December 2015: High Court trial listed to determine if the council has the right to terminate the agreement or not

The council said: "The council wants to ensure that staff and councillors receive adequate support to enable them to deliver public services and that the taxpayers of Cornwall receive value for money.

"The council, therefore, provided BT Cornwall with notice of its intention to terminate the contract and bring the services in-house.

"Whilst the dispute is being determined, the council hopes and expects BT Cornwall to maintain service delivery and support affected employees."

BT said: "BT has commenced legal action to ensure fair and proper handling of the issues which have arisen about BT Cornwall and, whilst this is taking place, it would be inappropriate for us to comment."