Yahoo News Belfast councillors hold back on £5 million security contract for City Hall
Elected representatives have questioned a £5 million contract for security at Belfast Council.
At a Belfast City Council committee meeting at City Hall, councillors held back a decision recommended by council officers for a £5 million contract for an outside private company to provide security services for up to five years.
The decision comes while security in City Hall is still a hot topic after a Sinn Féin employee in Northern Ireland resigned, admitting involvement in an incident where a portrait of a former DUP mayor was taken off the wall at City Hall and damaged.
READ MORE: Sinn Féin versus DUP over bilingual or trilingual signage at Springfield Dam
The council describes the £5 million contract as “fulfilling security responsibilities across the council in respect of the safety and security of staff, the public and buildings.” It states: “Security services include manned guarding, keyholding, mobile patrolling and events stewarding.”
The contract was part of a list of competitive tenders brought before councillors at the October meeting of the council’s Strategic Policy and Resources committee.
Councillors agreed to a Sinn Féin proposal to hold back the competitive tendering for security, in order to look at an alternative 'in-house' model.
At the S,P&R meeting a range of other contracts were agreed, such as £165,000 for up to three years for taxi services, £400,000 for up to four years for the supply of vehicle spare parts, and £365,000 for up to five years for the replacement of external firewall computer hardware.
Also at the S,P&R meeting, councillors agreed £900,000 for up to three years for an employee counselling service, £900,000 for up to three years for an occupational health service, and £196,096 for up to one year for managing and operating 2 Royal Avenue, Belfast.
Regarding single tender actions, the committee also agreed spending £280,000 on advertising billboards and posters over the next year and a half, despite Sinn Féin raising questions about the spend.
Sinn Féin Councillor Ronan McLaughlin told the chamber during the meeting: “Up to one million a year given to an external organisation to come in (for security). It is similar to what we had with pest control the other week -that was up to £700,000.
“What sort of in-house model was looked at? Because, if we are spending one million a year for external security services, why can’t we do that in-house?”
SDLP Councillor Séamas de Faoite said: “I raised this issue at a meeting of party group leaders. I am in this building quite a lot, probably more than I should be, and security is fundamental to the operations of City Hall and other spaces within the city centre.
“I think we have seen a heightened awareness in relation to security issues in this building in recent days. I don’t think that is the key context as to why we should have this conservation, but I do think we have to have a conversation about how we resource security here.
“I am not content that the outsourcing model is the best way of doing this, and I am not content with some of the current arrangements, in terms of how a small number of security staff are left in the building whenever large events are taking place, particularly large events in the evening time. I have had a number of concerns raised to me by staff about that.”
He supported holding off a decision on the contract to look at in-house modelling.
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