ANTHONY SHAW PHOTOGRAPHY / SHUTTERSTOCK news Richmond borough council builds bridges with Wandsworth The London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames has agreed to institute a single staffing structure with its counterpart in Wandsworth, after ruling out a merger with Kingston Council. Over the next two years, Richmond and Wandsworth councils will work together to implement the single shared staffing structure, which is anticipated to save the authorities up to 10m a year from 2017. This is the first such agreement to be made between two London boroughs. The councils expect to reduce costs by jointly commissioning services, and have stated that other savings will come from making back office cuts while protecting frontline services. However, they are yet to reveal exactly what these back office cuts will involve. GMB the union for local government workers has already expressed fears that it will lead to evenmore job losses on top of years of cuts already endured because of government austerity measures. One move that has been confirmed is that management structures will be merged to reduce costs at the senior management level. After the retirement of Richmonds chief executive Gillian Norton next year, Paul Martin, of Wandsworth, will take over as chief executive of both boroughs. The proposed merger between Richmond council and Kingston, known as the Thames Agreement, failed after irreconcilable differences over the suggested management approach. The Thames Agreement, which had first been proposed last summer, had been under discussion for about six months. Had it been agreed, it would have resulted in Richmond and Kingston which are already linked in terms of human resources, legal, audit and childrens services sharingresources in other areas to achieve savings of between 5m and 8m per year. iMPrisoneD tV coDeBreaKer orDereD to PaY UP A man jailed last year for selling equipment designed to circumvent paid-for television services has been ordered to pay 46,801 and costs of 8,851 for his crime. Albanian national Helidon Vuciterni ran his business, Alsat UK, from Willesden Lane, in Wembley. The company provided hardware and software, including codes, that allowed subscription television services to be viewed, bypassing the payment required by broadcasters. He specialised in providing equipment that allowed viewers in the UK to watch live Premier League football matches. Vuciterni is currently serving his prison sentence at Wormwood Scrubs after his conviction. The cash-seizure order was issued by Willesden Magistrates Court after an application by Brent Regulatory Services. Councillor George Crane, lead member for environment at Brent Council, said: Mr Vuciterni committed fraud for significant profit. The order ensures he will not benefit from money gained through criminality. Welsh government rejects proposed council mergers rejected voluntary offers to merge by Bridgend and the Vale of Glamorgan, Torfaen and Blaenau Gwent, and Conwy and Denbighshire. In a written statement, the minister explained that none of the proposed mergers were in line with a prospectus on the matter, released in 2014. I am disappointed to report that, on the basis of this assessment, I am not persuaded that any one of these expressions of Interest sufficiently meets the criteria for moving ahead to prepare a full Voluntary Merger Proposal, he said. The Welsh government confirmed that the Williams recommendation is still its preferred option when it published the Local Government (Wales) Bill on 26 January. This sets a timetable for voluntary mergers to take place by November 2015. SEAN LOCKE PHOTOGRAPHY / SHUTTERSTOCK The Welsh Public Services Minister, Leighton Andrews, has turned down three council mergers, despite a commitment to cut the number of authorities by half. After a recommendation by the Williams Commission last year, the Welsh government decided that the number of county borough councils in Wales should be reduced from 22 to around 11. However, Andrews Scambusters smashes gang that targeted the elderly IEF BR S IN EW N The European Food Safety Authority has said that the chemical, bisphenol A (BPA), used to stiffen some plastic food containers, poses no health risk to consumers of any age, including unborn children. It found that exposure to BPA was considerably under the safe level known as the tolerable daily intake, or TDI. 1 2 3 Click numbers for more stories 4 A Nottinghamshire-based gang pleaded guilty to fraud at Nottingham Crown Court after targeting pensioners with a scam that involved carrying out shoddy and unnecessary work on victims properties. Sentencing was due to take place as TS Today was published. The case was led by East Midlands Scambusters Team, a regional investigation unit set up by the National Trading Standards Board, which deals with large cases of fraud and deceptive trading practices. Evidence relating to 97 victims from across the East Midlands, Yorkshire and Cambridgeshire formed the prosecutions case against these individuals, but it is recognised that there are many more. The scale of the fraud makes it one of the biggest rogue trader cases ever dealt with by the team. All the victims were elderly, frail or vulnerable in some instances all three and a number were targeted on many occasions by the gang. It is estimated that the victims involved in this case had lost around 228,000. The group used a variety of company names, including Tileshield, Tileshield Coatings, Weatherproof and Nationwide Roof Coatings Yorkshire Ltd. They persuaded the victims that they needed improvements to their driveway or roof coatings. In all cases, the work was paid for in full, but was either not carried out to the agreed specification or not carried out at all. The convictions follow a complex, comprehensive two-year investigation, Operation Summit, by East Midlands Scambusters. The national importance of the case was recognised by the National Trading Standards Board, which provided additional funding for the investigation. Lord Toby Harris, chairman of the National Trading Standards Board, said: It is great news that this investigation and prosecution by the Scambusters team has resulted in those involved in this fraud being brought to justice. Cases like this demonstrate, once again, that we will catch and prosecute criminals who deceive vulnerable people in this way. "