A COUNCIL went ‘too far’ when it outsourced back office services, its leader has said.

Jane Murphy, the leader of South Oxfordshire District Council, said the Five Councils Partnership ‘wasn’t a complete mistake’ and that problems were being rectified so residents get ‘good value for money’.

SODC and Vale of White Horse District Council had hoped to each save about £9m over the course of the partnership – but in parts it might not even break even.

Mrs Murphy told BBC Radio Oxford: “I hold my hands up now. It wasn’t a complete mistake. We will make some savings but I think we did go too far but we are learning by those mistakes, we’re changing it now.”

She added: “We haven’t made the amount of savings we wanted to but actually for me it’s about whether we’re getting good value for money and we are doing the best for our residents and maybe it wasn’t the right thing to do at the right time.”

The partnership was declared a ‘ground-breaking’ way to save finance, HR, IT and facilities management costs when it was first agreed in 2016 but has been beset with problems.

One major part of the deal, with facilities managers VINCI, was axed in 2017.

Vale paid £1.67m to the company, with SODC paying £1.5m for its work