BOLTON'S newly privatised careers service has rejected claims that it is failing to produce information for the public.

Councillors complained that regular reports on youth unemployment are no longer supplied at meetings.

Normally they keep abreast of unemployment and industrial developments in Bolton through a detailed Economic Bulletin which is presented to each meeting of the Planning and Environment Committee.

But several times over the past few months once regular reports tracking the progress of school leavers have not been included.

Officers told angry councillors that Stockport-based Nord Anglia - who beat a partnership between the town hall and Bolton and Bury Training and Enterprise Council to secure the contract earlier this year - only submitted the statistics to the department "infrequently".

But after hearing the same explanation for a second time, council leader Cllr Bob Howarth demanded something was done.

He said: "This is an unsatisfactory situation. It would have been interesting to find out the experiences of school leavers this summer..

"I particularly wanted to see these figures now, not in a couple of months time."

But David Brownlea, Chief Executive of Lifetime Careers, which covers Rochdale, Bury and Bolton for Nord Anglia, said: I think there has been a misunderstanding and this is a problem of communications.

"We have never been officially asked to produce these figures but we have responded positively to several informal requests from the local authority.

"I am currently consulting with the three local authorities to find out the type and frequency of information they require."

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