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ust weeks before the crucial decision is made, a leading Bradford teacher has stated he feels the two bidders may not be up to the job.

Bradford's NUT representative, Ian Murch, is concerned that the Government is using Bradford LEA as a guinea pig to see whether a public private partnership (PPP) will work.

Mr Murch believes the final two bidders may not be up to the job and the Council should have looked at other options before agreeing to the PPP.

But Council Chief Executive Ian Stewart says he has every faith in the two companies and believes they have a wealth of educational experience.

But Mr Murch said: "It's too late to argue per se whether privatisation is a good thing. But whether it would improve education services in Bradford, I have two reasons for thinking not.

"Firstly I don't think the companies have got the necessary background or experience to do the work. Secondly it's a very complicated set-up and it will be hard to ensure accountability for what happens.

"With only a couple of exceptions, no company is delivering education services - or at least not on the scale of Bradford. If they haven't got the people who are going to run the service we have no idea if they can run it or not."

But Council chief executive, Mr Stewart, said: "The contractors have gone to a great extent in personnel terms to bring on board educationalists."

He said he had been talking to the final two bidders and was expecting to be given names of people with an extensive background in education, who would be running the services if their bid was successful.

But Mr Murch said he believed that Bradford was being used as an experiment by the Government and because Bradford is a hung council no-one was prepared to take a strong line on the idea.

He said: "The Government is determined to have this experiment. It attempted to impose similar solutions on other LEAs such as Liverpool, Doncaster, Sheffield but they dug their heels in and refused to do it."

He criticised EduAction, saying information he had from contacts in Hackney was that the council there did not want to renew its contract with Nord Anglia.

He also said Nord Anglia's partner in EduAction, Amey, was a big company but was involved with gravel extraction, road contracts and civil engineering.

"Without being harsh, personnel services needed for road management are very different to taking on a contract for 5,000 teachers," he said.

Mr Stewart pointed out that a lot of work had gone into the process of choosing a contractor.

"A tremendous amount of work has been done to ensure we get the best possible result," he said. "If we are not satisfied with the bids we won't appoint anyone. We won't appoint for appointments sake."

If a decision is not made, the contractors could be asked to go away and make changes in their bids until the Council is happy to appoint someone.

A public meeting has been called by the NUT for parents to give their views and to find out how their children could be affected.

Mr Murch admitted it was rather late to be having a public debate, but felt it was necessary for people to be informed about what was going to happen.

The main speakers at the debate, on May 10, will be NUT president John Illingworth, Education Portfolio Holder for Bradford Council, David Ward, and Bradford North MP, Terry Rooney.

The meeting is at The French Ballroom in The Midland Hotel, Cheapside.

Mr Stewart declined to comment on the meeting, but said Ofsted and consultants Price Waterhouse Coopers had consulted interested stakeholders before making their reports, both of which were in the public domain.