Would it apply in this case? It seems not to be a direct privatisation, but, at the end of a fixed term contract, the council looking to award new contracts to different providers. Would TUPE apply in that case? I suppose if the new provider were taking over the facilities and using the same staff that it might. I read somewhere that the government were planning to alter TUPE to avoid this though, and make it easier (and cheaper) to transfer the provision of services from governmet bodies to private companies,

I will try and check later what the situation is.