IT WAS a small victory for supporters of Basingstoke Live last night, after the council’s scrutiny committee agreed to ask the Cabinet to reject plans to look at outsourcing the event to be run by an external company.

A noisy protest was held outside the council offices ahead of the meeting, at which councillors had a lengthy debate on plans to undertake a soft market testing exercise to see if the running of events, including Basingstoke Live, could be done better by a private company, and save the council money.

The scrutiny committee heard from passionate supporters of Basingstoke Live, who said that if the event was privately run, it would destroy the character of the free festival, which this year attracted over 30,000 people to War Memorial Park.

Zoni Asif, member of the youth parliament for Basingstoke, said: “I’m disappointed that we are here to support an event that really speaks for itself. It’s an event that people look forward to each year.”

Daniel O’Loughlin, chair of the Basingstoke Youth Movement, said: “Basingstoke Live is something we have put together as a community.”

He added: “I don’t think many of the councillors understand the importance of it. I spoke to a young person on the train and its’ the only thing he does in the summer holidays.”

A council report estimates the council could save £206,000 a year if events were run externally.

But Labour councillor Jack Cousins said the figures were not based on “detailed costings” and accused the council of “pointing a finger in the air”.

Councillors opposing the Cabinet’s decision to carry out soft market testing said that there had been “insufficient analysis and democratic consideration of other possible outcomes.”

They said a report with other options, created by a Commissioning Outcome Group (COG), had been left out of the documents.

Independent councillor Martin Biermann said: “We would like to know whether there’s a dead hand or another agenda steering this.”

Paul Midgley, who organised the protest and who took part in the COG, said there was no discussion about outsourcing Basingstoke Live.

He added: “Ideas could have originated from under the table as far as we know.”

As part of the plans, the events team at the council would be abolished.

Cllr Cousins asked who would run various other services that are carried out by this team, and highlighted part of the report that stated certain services would be “significantly more expensive to procure commercially if they were not provided by the council.”

He added: “Personally I think the council needs to start again. I think we should recommend to the Cabinet that they chuck this report in the bin.”

Liberal Democrat Councillor Gavin James asked if Basingstoke Live was outsourced, would volunteers still give up their time to help run it.

There were shouts of ‘no’ from the public.

Councillor John Izett, Cabinet member for property, finance and commissioning, was at the meeting to consider the comments.

He defended the Cabinet’s decision to carry out a soft market testing exercise, and said: “It’s been a thoroughly transparent process.”

He added: “We have a duty as councillors to make sure money is spent wisely and effectively.”

Cllr Izett accused the opposition councillors of trying to “trip up this administration.”

He added: “We are committed to Basingstoke Live, funding is in place for next year. I see a future where we want to release Basingstoke Live. We want to do that without imposing too much of a burden on public finances... I don’t know what it is about change that scares you so much.”

Labour councillor Laura James asked if Basingstoke Live would be free to attend in the future, to which Cllr Izett replied: “I don’t know the answer to that.”

Andrew Grove, events manager for the council, said charging for Basingstoke Live would make “delivering the event incredibly difficult and set it up for the likelihood of failure.”

While Cllr Cousins said charging would increase the running costs, and said Basingstoke Live brings £2.6million to the local economy.

He added: “One of the reasons why Basingstoke Live is a success is because it’s free.”

Cllr Gavin James pointed out that performers would charge more if the event was ticketed.

He added: “There’s no great big savings out of this. I think we are chasing pennies.”

Councillors voted in favour of the recommendations put forward by Labour Councillor Paul Harvey, and agreed with the motion that the Cabinet should not proceed with its decision to carry out a soft market testing.