Those who read the business pages may have heard about the woes of Connaught PLC.
The government contractor yesterday had to suspend trading of its shares, as it admitted it was in financial difficulty.
Thanks to a call from a VB reader who preferred to remain anonymous, we also learnt yesterday that Connaught Environmental LTD, a company owned by Connaught PLC, currently holds the contract to clean all Island public toilets.
It got us to wondering who what would happen if the company went under, how quickly would the IW council be able to engage an alternative contractor, etc.
Cleaning contract not affected
We got in touch with the council to see what the score was.
Stuart Love, the Director of Economy and Environment told VB “The public toilet cleaning contract is currently run by Connaught Environmental LTD, which is owned by Connaught PLC.
“However, the latter’s difficulties relate to their residential division and we have been informed that this will have no impact on their environmental arm which continues to trade as normal. The Island’s public toilets will therefore continue to be cleaned as normal.
“As with any major contract with the council and a private firm, it is standard practice to have clauses in the contract that financially protect the council should a firm no longer be able to carry out its service. This is the case with the public toilet cleaning contract and while we are not expecting to activate these clauses, we will continue to work closely with Connaught Environmental to monitor the situation.”
