What would you Cut in your Council?

tedster123

not visited for while - the idea is it would be mean tested so if you can't afford you do not pay - if you can you do, am i missing something?

julieq

Cleaver wrote: »

Cut: things that aren't productive or cost effective.
Keep: things that are productive and cost effective.

That might involve keeping a Cheif Exec on £150k because they are great and it might mean getting rid of a lollipop team because they aren't needed any more. And it might mean the complete opposite. Without looking at various councils and the specific results how can I judge?

Actually, I'm not joining in with the sentiment of the thread am I? Let's see if I can get in to the spirit. Erm...

Cut: stupid programmes that encourage lesbians to knit, chief execs, anyone earning over £17k, disability engagement officers, teenage pregnancy advisors, anything in Urdu, people earning over £12k, gay officers, equality and diversity officers, chief execs, people earning over £25k, people earning over £18k, directors, consultants, overpaid people, people earning over £16k, people earning over £24k, people earning over £14k, paper, paperwork, any type of paper product, strategies, synergies, synagogues, synapses, people earning over £28k, football equality lesbian coordinators, lesbian Urdu community officers, anyone over £19k, [STRIKE]BTL landlords[/STRIKE] (sorry, wrong rant), anyone earning over 8k and penions. Yes, definitely cut pensions.

Keep: I'd like to keep any profession that's low paid and fits in to a lovely salt 'o the earth type cliche that makes me proud to be British. Bin men and lollipop men basically, especially really cute old men called Ken who have been doing it for 30 years. In fact, put Ken in charge of the council. Then keep anyone earning under 4k, people who look after old people, people who look after people who dribble, anyone that refuses to touch paper work, Ken, lollipop men, bin men, bin lorries, road sweepers, Ken, lollipop men, Ken, Ken, people who earn under 3k, Ken and Ken.

Basically, my strategy for all councils is to sack everyone aside from lollipop men called Ken. I'd pay around a dozen Kens in each city around £2k each and get them to do everything. I'd farm the rest out to the private sector.

post of the decade, wish there was more than one thanks button.

jen245

Id get rid of the chief exec (paid in excess of £200k!!), the useless directors (all paid in excess of £100k!) the old, fat and balding "managers" who couldnt manage a p*ss up in a brewery, who, in my local council, have all clubbed together and paid out hundreds of thousands of ££ to bring in consultants from outside to do the job, they should have been doing in the first place!! :mad:

Loughton_Monkey

Cleaver wrote: »

Cut: stupid programmes that encourage lesbians to knit, chief execs, anyone earning over £17k, disability engagement officers, teenage pregnancy advisors, anything in Urdu, people earning over £12k, gay officers, equality and diversity officers, chief execs, people earning over £25k, people earning over £18k, directors, consultants, overpaid people, people earning over £16k, people earning over £24k, people earning over £14k, paper, paperwork, any type of paper product, strategies, synergies, synagogues, synapses, people earning over £28k, football equality lesbian coordinators, lesbian Urdu community officers, anyone over £19k, [STRIKE]BTL landlords[/STRIKE] (sorry, wrong rant), anyone earning over 8k and penions. Yes, definitely cut pensions.

Sounds like we're left with a dozen breast feeding co-ordinators, the bouncy castle attendants, and every single so-called 'teaching assistant' [for the uninitiated, these are unemployable younger lads and lassies that missed school themselves first time round, and are employed to sit with the 21% of 'educationally sub-normal' kids during class to prevent them farting and dribbling so loudly that they disrupt the few kids who want to learn.]

Le_Chuck

worldtraveller wrote: »

Get rid of final salary pensions for all employees, not just new recruits, increase employee contributions & reduce employer contributions.

which is happening, and it will cause problems when loads opt out, so won't get the income to fund current pensioners

Patchwork_Quilt

tomterm8 wrote: »

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?

Our Parish Council (unpaid) took over the allotments a couple of years ago and got them sorted out, so I was well pleased. They sort out things like seats in the High Street and Christmas lights, which I think ought to be the first thing to go.

Teaching Assistants, by the way, are usually someone's Mum, looking for a job that has school holidays. They are mostly vastly overqualified and do an amazing job getting dribbled on by special needs pupils for almost no money.

Keep the teaching assistants and the care home workers. Switch the street lights off at midnight instead. Or is that a national thing?

lynzpower

Nergal wrote: »

Cut the Dog Wardens, they do nothing anyway. Save Street Cleaners to clean up the dog mess.

are you jokiing? Our dog warden is out all day long ( and on call outs at night) to retrieve stray and feral dogs from the streets, mainly staffs.

lynzpower

Cut: Over-expensive private contractors that charge elderly people upward of 18 quid an hour for home care, and the army of staff needed to co-ordinate monitor and invoice this crazy system. Cut expensive corporate lunches and "away" days by senior management,.Cut management bonus in childrens social work for managers. Cut silly vanity projects like statues. I know this is national/ London spend ( I bet my council contributes) is this nutcase boris idea of the cable car to nowhere 40millon of our hard earned (im sure it would be more in the end) for this http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-12020689 Its bad enough we have to pay for the olympics but lets top it off with this :wall: Cut private housing contracting using well known trade cartels, that charge the taxpayer 100 quid to change a lock or 350 to unblock a sink. Cut costs to estate agents and market own assets in-house using existing staff. Cut "perfuming roads". Cut advertising of the council, massive billboards signage etc, it really is overkill round here. Cut silly internal markets within councils to the bare minimum.

Think about cutting : Heating in some council blocks, or turning it down earlier. Its excessive.

Dont cut: Children and families social work and associated functions such as play groups sure start. Dont restrict children coming into the care system when abused because " we cant afford it" Don't cut meals on wheels. Dont cut sheltered housing wardens. Dont sell off playgrounds, especially with the market at the bottom. Dont cut anything that is likely to cost us more via the health service at a later date- its not worth it.

Increase amount spent on pothole filling as this costs councils a fortune when drivers claim back the cost of repairs. Increase mental health and domestic violence support as these are both ballooning under the costs of the recession and people are suffering, hard. Increase charges to businesses who are in breach of environmental health trading standards etc to properly reflect the cost of bringing them to justice. Increase recycling to save further money and offer boris bike systems ( paid by private companies) in all towns. increase planning function of removing EA boards when they have been there too long with requisite fines for the EA as per statute. INcrease efforts to sell the borough as a location to film co.s etc.