PLANS to centralise council services across Worcestershire in a bid to save money have been hit with a delay.

Leading council officers hoped detailed business cases showing how services could be merged would be put before all seven councils across the county soon.

But drawing up the business cases on areas including regulatory services, which includes trading standards and environmental health; human resources; property; internal audit; and street scene, which includes litter picking and street sweeping, are taking more time than expected resulting in a delay of at least two months.

Any service merger will almost certainly mean job losses as savings are made.

Vic Allison, deputy managing director for Wychavon District Council, which is pushing for all councils to merge their regulatory services and internal auditing but has reservations about the other areas, announced the delay at its executive board meeting.

“The business cases are taking a little bit longer to formalise,” he said. “Rather than them coming before the council in October/November they will probably come in December/January. All of the other councils are in exactly the same position..”

In July, your Worcester News revealed officers from Worcester, Wychavon, Malvern, Wyre Forest, Redditch, Bromsgrove, and Worcestershire councils were meeting to talk about the Worcestershire Enhanced Two Tier (WETT) programme.

It was intended, back then, that any business case merger agreed by all or a majority of councils would then be adopted in April next year. However, the two-month delay has now thrown that target date into doubt.

There are a number of thorny issues to be thrashed out, such as how each business case will be governed, which council will host it, and whether the costs will outweigh the savings.

Your Worcester News was the only member of the media to attend this meeting.