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Bristol City Council’s external security expenditure
Bristol City Council will spend up to £2m employing private security guards over the next three years.
The hired muscle will be used to secure elections, “contentious full council meetings” and protests, deputy mayor Craig Cheney said.
Other roles will include manning the front of house reception, mobile responses, patrols and transporting valuables.
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In the past financial year, the council spent £863,000 on private security, but the contract expires in October. A new funding package was agreed at a council cabinet meeting on Tuesday (September 4).
Craig Cheney
At the meeting, Cheney, who is cabinet member for finance, said: “We use security at many of our sites and at many different events.
“We have a very adept internal team, however there are times when we need to flex that up to deal with unexpected security needs – elections, contentious full council meetings, protests, temporary security at building works and so on.
“Inevitably we can’t have our staff waiting around for work, or worse, people on zero hours contracts waiting to hear when they’re needed by us.”
Cabinet members agreed to spend spend £1.4m on external security services over the next three years, with an option of an extra £200,000 each year if needed.
In response to a question over whether outsourcing was the best option, Cheney said: “I agree, it’s not necessarily a win-win.
He added: “That said we can’t have people sitting around all year with no jobs except when there’s one election. It’s not really feasible to maintain those people in-house.”
The council expects to spend less on private security in the coming years because a number of buildings closed between 2016 and 2018.
Jack Pitts is a local democracy reporter for Bristol
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