What would you Cut in your Council?

Cleaver

amcluesent wrote: »

Cut - consultants, anyone with a beard, anyone recruited into a non-job since NuLabour came to power, "fact-finding" jollies, translating into dozens of languages, molly-codling poofters/lezzers, 'movement and dance' outreach co-ordinators, "green" scams, pandering to Mohammedans, speed-scamera partnerships, ruining decent areas by housing 'seekers'.

Restore - emptying the bins every week

I only thanked this because the beard comment really made me laugh. In my typical left-wingy way, I'd like to point out that I'm not thanking your 'pandering to Mohammedans' comment. You daft racist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBagN5En-N0

jamsandwhich

Cut - an all expenses paid, private marquee for every department member and their partners to a prestigious annual event for a county hall employee because they have worked there for 20 years

Save - libraries, swimming pools or public loos

lostinrates

jamsandwhich wrote: »

public loos

On this note, a local town has paid for public loos, staffed clean...spanking clean, no groups of teens loitering inside. TBH, a well staffed wellmaintained community facility is easily worth 50p a time to me.

Cleaver

jamsandwhich wrote: »

Cut - an all expenses paid, private marquee for every department member and their partners to a prestigious annual event for a county hall employee because they have worked there for 20 years

Save - libraries, swimming pools or public loos

Here's a question. And I'm not trying to make a point here, it's an honest question.

If someone has worked for the council library for 20 years and has been a fantastic servant to that library through putting in extra hours, reading to kids, going above and beyond to help people etc. and the ceremony to mark their 20 years service gives them pride to go on and do another 20 years, is it therefore worth it?

Actually, to answer my own question, I guess there's lots of ways to show your appreciation to someone for their service without going to those extremes.

I feel for public sector organisations sometimes though. You've had someone who might have given 20 or 30 years public service in a very low paid job and I think they deserve to be recognised, but at the same time you don't want to waste money. It can be tricky.

tomterm8

I think one thing I would cut is ken.

... more seriously? I think I would probably, in all seriousness, consider cutting the chief financial officer who decided to invest the councils reserve funds in Icelandic banks after the credit rating agencies had already downgraded them.

n.b. does anyone actually know what the parish council does?

shockingmoment

Transformational Change department. Staffed with 14 'professionals' on outrageous salaries (£22-56k) and no-one knows what they do, FOI requests turned down as this information is 'exempt'.

jamsandwhich

Cleaver wrote: »

Here's a question. And I'm not trying to make a point here, it's an honest question.

If someone has worked for the council library for 20 years and has been a fantastic servant to that library through putting in extra hours, reading to kids, going above and beyond to help people etc. and the ceremony to mark their 20 years service gives them pride to go on and do another 20 years, is it therefore worth it?

Actually, to answer my own question, I guess there's lots of ways to show your appreciation to someone for their service without going to those extremes.

I feel for public sector organisations sometimes though. You've had someone who might have given 20 or 30 years public service in a very low paid job and I think they deserve to be recognised, but at the same time you don't want to waste money. It can be tricky.

To me, that amount of expenditure is far too excessive however you look at it as it must have run into thousands - I have no idea of the true cost of it but it far outweighs twenty years of service no matter how dedicated and good at your job you are. A council cannot pay out that amount of money every time someone works for twenty years - it just cannot be maintained.

I would imagine that the cost would run into paying for a teaching assistant for a year, or actually pay the people who volunteer (or pay the librarry servant for her extra hours instead) to do jobs or even increase the wage of a low paid employee?

This is a council who constantly put their CT up yearly because they need it to meet forecasted budgets :-(

ali-t

concerned43 wrote: »

All managers earning over £35k
Housing Officers/inspectors
Board of Directors (replace with elected councelors)
All staff dealing with non-essential services - I got a letter in from my council yesterday asking if I wanted to join their book club! also did I want to sign up to their training programmes:

• learning why your children behave the way they do!
• Learning what your child learns at school!
• Self awareness
• Confidence building

These all run and paid for my the council! God give me strenght:mad:

I think the one I have highlighted in bold is probably a moneysaving exercise from an invest to save perspective.

If enough people go on these sort of courses (which look to me like disguised parenting classes!) it may keep children out of the care system longer term. Where I live it costs between £4-7K a week to keep a young person in residential care so courses like that should help to save money.

The other three, I haven't a clue about

Heyman_2

Oh you all make it sound so easy! In reality, it's a very tough proposition as Manchester City Council have just been discovering.

The problem with this kind of proposition is that the cut/keep ratio is always going to be disproportionate. You think that by sacking the entire Equalities department or giving Ken the Lollipop Man the boot that you're going to be saving wads of cash but you're really just dealing with the tip of the iceberg.

Manchester Council have to save £109m over the next 4 years!

http://insidethem60.journallocal.co.uk/2011/02/08/where-the-manchester-axe-is-falling-the-cuts-in-detail/

ILW

ali-t wrote: »

I think the one I have highlighted in bold is probably a moneysaving exercise from an invest to save perspective.

If enough people go on these sort of courses (which look to me like disguised parenting classes!) it may keep children out of the care system longer term. Where I live it costs between £4-7K a week to keep a young person in residential care so courses like that should help to save money.

The other three, I haven't a clue about

How is that figure made up, I find it very difficult to believe unless the council involved really are incredibly inefficient.