Councillor Andy Boddington says Shropshire Council’s private company ip&e needs to be publicly accountable as public money is used to fund it

YESTERDAY, Shropshire Council’s cabinet considered the business plan for its private company, ip&e.

The council has decided that the report will be exempt, which means that the public can neither read nor comment on the report.

I am angry that this is a secret report even though the company is funded by public money. That can’t be right.

I’ve read the business plan. There is nothing I can see that needs to be confidential. It describes ambitions for ip&e services and its projected income over the next few years.

You can read this sort of information about companies every day in the Financial Times. I cannot see a smidgen of commercially confidential information in the report.

Council leader Keith Barrow told the last meeting of Shropshire Council that everyone in Shropshire is a shareholder of ip&e. But it seems that, as shareholders, we are not allowed to know what our investment is expected to achieve or what the returns might be.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of Shropshire Council moving its public operations into ip&e, we shouldn’t undermine democracy.

We are using public money to fund ip&e. It needs to be publicly accountable. That means publishing its business plans so that councillors and the public can approve or challenge them.

ANDY BODDINGTON

Shropshire Councillor for Ludlow North

Chestnut Grove, Ludlow