Lambeth in a pickle over council posters

Wheezy_2

Twas in the news yesterday...
Lambeth council put up several of these:

The council used several posters inviting residents to have their say in the upcoming budget cuts, with the line “the Government has cut our money so we are forced to cut services”.
It prompted the Department for Communities and Local Government to criticise the “waste of money” on a “scare campaign” and said the council should be focusing on protecting frontline services.

So what do you think? Fair consultation exercise or blatant party politics? (Lambeth is Labour council btw)

Full story: http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/8797874.Lambeth_in_a_pickle_over_council_posters/

Each poster cost Lambeth Council £600 to produce.

£600?? EACH?? :eek:

ILW

Wheezy wrote: »

Twas in the news yesterday...
Lambeth council put up several of these:




So what do you think? Fair consultation exercise or blatant party politics? (Lambeth is Labour council btw)

Full story: http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/8797874.Lambeth_in_a_pickle_over_council_posters/



£600?? EACH?? :eek:

Says it all really.

CloudCuckooLand

Lambeth. Enuff said.

ultrawomble

Now changed to:

The poster campaign cost Lambeth Council £600 to produce in its entirety.

IronWolf

Quite obviously political, its a disgrace that they are wasting tax papers money on political statements like that, aren't there laws against this kind of thing?

ultrawomble

But surely asking local residents what is most important to them is all part of the much vaunted 'big society'?

ILW

A few years ago Croydon did a vote amongst its taxpayers and set 3 level of council tax with all sorts of dire warnings about what would happen if the lowes one was voted for. The lowest one got it. They never tried it again.

lemonjelly

Michael Gove is basically using the same arguement in the EMA debate in the commons.

There is no money!

FWIW essentially it is true, so what is the issue with addressing it to constituents?

ILW

lemonjelly wrote: »

Michael Gove is basically using the same arguement in the EMA debate in the commons.

There is no money!

FWIW essentially it is true, so what is the issue with addressing it to constituents?

The constituents would come up with suggestions such as cut councillors expenses, cut the admin staffs wages, stop spending our money on politcal poster campaigns, etc etc and they would be totally ignored.

michaels

I guess the political bit is 'so we are forced to cut services' - 'we are forced to make savings' would be more neutral. Is a poster campaign the best way to encourage community input in to the decision making process?

Wheezy wrote: »

Twas in the news yesterday...
Lambeth council put up several of these:




So what do you think? Fair consultation exercise or blatant party politics? (Lambeth is Labour council btw)

Full story: http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/news/8797874.Lambeth_in_a_pickle_over_council_posters/



£600?? EACH?? :eek:

princeofpounds

I tell you what Lambeth could do with - less bloody posters!

I know the area very well and I swear there were less posters in Leninist Russia. They clearly book 90% of the interior-bus poster advertising, that can't come cheap.

'Claim your EMA'
'Free English Language Classes'
'Recycle!'
'Lambeth is multicultural, celebrate it at one of our sponsored festivals'
etc.

One good thing about them is that the staff in the council office at Brixton you go to for parking permits were actually reasonably efficient. One guy was even giving a woman a hard time (in a polite way) for moaning about her entitlements, apparently housing, council tax plus support for food and utilities weren't good enough. Next time I went he had been promoted.