THE council is planning to invest in new garage facilities to enable it to service and maintain third party vehicles.
As part of its Fleet Project, North East Lincolnshire Council has entered an agreement with Humberside Police to maintain and service its unmarked police cars.
It has also submitted a tender to the Grimsby Institute to manage and maintain its vehicles.
Officers are now "actively exploring opportunities" to expand its customer base.
However, the move has been questioned by Councillor Philip Jackson (Con, Waltham), who asked why the authority was planning to invest in a new garage and MOT bay for a service which did not generate an income for the council, but merely covered its costs.
Speaking at a meeting of the regeneration, housing and environment scrutiny panel, he said: "I'm finding it a bit difficult to get my head around why we seem to be using some of our precious capital resources to invest in garage facilities and an MOT bay when it's only five years since we closed our MOT bay. We are not going to be generating any income and I really don't see why we want to get involved in a situation where we are trying to compete with the private sector."
Council leader Chris Shaw said: "We are just following government policy. We are reducing the cost to the authority by doing it in-house. The minister Eric Pickles said councils should be more efficient and businesslike in their approach. I think that is what we are doing."
However, Councillor Jackson replied: "I don't buy that argument because if that was the case we would be opening food shops and doing a full range of services."
Councillor John Fenty said he was not so against the plan, but added that it was "only fair" that councillors understood the business case.
He said: "The most rudimentary things you do when starting a business is you have a financial plan and a business plan. I do not believe you should start a process like this without a financial plan behind it."
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