Islington Council Bites Back ITNet fined £40,000 for poor performance

12.00.00am GMT Tue 26th Mar 2002

LibDem run Islington Council today announced that ITNet was to be fined £40,000 for poor performance in February and was unlikely to escape a similar penalty for March. Cllr Steve Hitchins, Leader of the Council, said: ìWe have always said the ITNet contract was a weak one. It is now much tougher and we are making it work. Many people are concerned that ITNet makes large profits for such a poor service. They now know that their future profit depends on their improved performance.î ìIt gives me no satisfaction to announce these fines, but is important that ITNet knows that Islington will no longer tolerate poor performance. Their performance in answering phones has been abysmal.î ìIím glad to say that ITNetís performance around complaints has improved substantially. The local government ombudsman has now removed them from his action list.î Background information 1. The contract is up for review in 2003. 2. The terms of the contract now make it much more practical to end the contract on the basis of poor performance without legal penalties. 3. The contract signed by the Labour council in 1998 was for eight years with no review clauses.