WINSFORD town councillors expressed reservations over any future privatisation of key borough council services.

Cheshire West and Chester Council are staging a consultation on the future of regulatory services – which includes the likes of trading standards, environmental health, licensing, CCTV and the registration of births, deaths and marriages.

The council needs to bridge a £49 million financial gap over the next three years, and regulatory services need to deliver £1.5 of those savings between the financial years of 2014/15 and 2016/17.

The council are looking at how the services can best be delivered in the future while also saving money.

Options for include redesigning services in-house, providing joint services with other organisations, using council-owned companies, outsourcing to a private company or charitable organisation, or setting of co-operatives and mutuals owned by their workforces.

At a meeting of Winsford Town Council on Monday, June 16, clr Tony Hooton said: “One or two of these services don’t lend themselves to privatisation.

“Environmental health, for example, is much too big and important to sell off to a buyer.

“But private companies could possibly do a good job with some of the smaller services such as looking after cemeteries and crematoriums.”

Councillor Don Beckett added that it was ‘very important’ that trading standards remained under council control.