CONCERNED town hall staff packed out a council meeting to witness their jobs being transferred to troubled outsourcing company Mouchel.

Dozens of staff from the finance, organisational development and human resources departments will now become Mouchel employees from February 1.

The move is expected to save the council £7.5 million over nine years but is highly controversial because of Mouchel’s perilous financial position and rock bottom share price.

Dave Higgins, the staff’s union representative, was applauded by staff after he urged councillors to take the advice of an independent risk assessment and “adopt a cautious, wait and see approach” to the transfer of any more services.

These concerns were echoed by opposition councillors. Labour leader Cllr Ben Grower warned: “It has to be in the interests of Bournemouth to proceed with this, not in the interests of Mouchel. We are not in the business of bailing out Mouchel.”

And Independent Cllr Anne Rey asked deputy leader Cllr John Beesley: “If you were just embarking on outsourcing now, would you honestly look at this company given its current circumstances?”

But, following three hours of discussion, the town’s Conser-vative cabinet voted unanimously to proceed with the transfer.

Chief executive Pam Donnellan said: “If you talk to our staff who are now Mouchel staff, you will get a very positive picture about how the company has been able to move these services forward and meet those exacting standards that we have set out.”

She also warned that abandoning or stalling the transfer would have serious repercussions and it would fall on the council to make the required savings.

Mouchel reported an overall loss of £65m in the year to July 2011 but has negotiated some leeway with its banks and is expected to remain solvent this year.

The prospect of a takeover is highly likely but councillors were told the original contract dealt with this scenario.

Any buyer must honour the deal with Bournemouth coun-cil, or alternatively the council could opt to bring the services back in house at an estimated cost of around £135,000.

Deputy leader Cllr John Beesley said there were no issues with the way Mouchel was currently delivering in Bournemouth and said the company’s new management team had the approval of the company’s banks, He added that Mouchel was paid retrospectively for delivering services and had already created 66 jobs and invested £5m in town.