OXFORDSHIRE County Council has handed over £10.65m to pay for completed work and to formally end its contract with Carillion – ahead of a planned termination expected in June.

Carillion was put into liquidation on January 15 and provided the council with school meals and cleaning, maintenance of council buildings, school extensions, and property services.

The council is now responsible for these again.

Since it signed a 10-year deal with Carillion in 2012, the council said it had spent about £148m with the company.

The council said if it had not struck the final settlement early and made the payment, it would be facing complex legal proceedings to get out of the contract.

Councillor Lorraine Lindsay-Gale, cabinet member for property, cultural and community services, said: “We brought the process forward and legally terminated our contact and will be taking over those services to ensure continuity.”

The council has said all Carillion’s former staff providing outsourced services will be transferred to it and will continue work as normal.

All contracts and arrangements will be reassessed later this year.

Mrs Lindsay-Gale added: “Carillion’s financial problems were not the original reason we wanted to end the contract. But as the scale of the company’s problems became apparent we are very glad we ended the contract when we did.

“The reality is that if we had not ended the contract and settled with the liquidators, we would now be tied up in lengthy negotiations to end our involvement with the company. This early exit deal means we can get on with finding better ways to deliver services that Carillion provided.”

Carillion’s sub-contracted staff in Oxfordshire will be paid by administrators PWC until January 31 and will be transferred over to the council on February 1.

That includes the wage bill for 250 people employed at 101 Oxfordshire schools providing catering or cleaning. Any further decisions will be decided during the summer holidays.

Alexandra Bailey, the council’s director of property, assets and innovation, said the council begun to pull out of its contract with Carillion last year because it was ‘more ambitious’ than the arrangement allowed.

She said: “We had concerns around the construction projects and then also just because we wanted to do something different around our strategic management – how you use your assets. We’ve just become more ambitious about the way we manage our assets, how that can generate revenue for the council.

“It’s just not what they do.

“We put everything out into this big contract with them and they were meant to be doing strategic asset management for us but they just weren’t able to meet our ambition.”

Negotiations to bring the council’s contract to an end started in spring 2017.