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> What a bunch of cuts, WBC's budget simulator
Bofem
post Nov 9 2010, 05:27 PM
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Well I've made my contribution to the cuts, but wondering if it's people power or PR gimmick.

Some of the headings are quite emotive - who would want to cut 'care for the disabled and elderly'? Whereas 'town planning' sounds boring, so will probably get a battering.

Here's my top 5 changes.
1. Create a charitable trust to run libraries and museums (a la Corn Exchange)
2. Abolish the Education Department (90 staff, I believe)
3. Sell off assets like Greenham House (prime spot for a bit of housing)
4. Get rid of the green meanies - loss-making, unpopular
5. Sell off leisure centres


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Simon Kirby
post Nov 9 2010, 06:32 PM
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I completed it too, and I wondered the same. Every saving came with a sob-story. Of course that might very well be the reality of making those cuts, I don't know enough about WBC to judge.

That's an interesting list Bofem. I use both libraries and leisure centres so my inclination is to protect them, but something has to give doesn't it. I don't see why leisure centres shouldn't pay for themselves, but libraries? Would a Library Trust get state funding? 2-4, yes, why not.


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blackdog
post Nov 9 2010, 06:59 PM
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QUOTE (Simon Kirby @ Nov 9 2010, 06:32 PM) *
I completed it too, and I wondered the same. Every saving came with a sob-story. Of course that might very well be the reality of making those cuts, I don't know enough about WBC to judge.

That's an interesting list Bofem. I use both libraries and leisure centres so my inclination is to protect them, but something has to give doesn't it. I don't see why leisure centres shouldn't pay for themselves, but libraries? Would a Library Trust get state funding? 2-4, yes, why not.


The sob-story approach is probably to get our sympathy.

The problem with the calculator is that it is too top-level - I would want to know what I was cutting before making the decisions.

Selling off assets is always an option, but often a short-sighted one. Selling off Greenham Park may help balance the books this year, but there would still be a need to make cuts next year. Might as well do it now.
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Richard Garvie
post Nov 9 2010, 07:09 PM
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You got it on the button blackdog, where is the detail???
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Strafin
post Nov 9 2010, 07:42 PM
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What are you all talking about??
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Strafin
post Nov 9 2010, 07:44 PM
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It's alright I found the NWN story.
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Iommi
post Nov 9 2010, 07:54 PM
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Yes, the program is rather unscientific. I just went a long and took the same of for everything until I got the required cut. They all have merit, but the things that you might think are loss deserving have a smaller budget, so there is little to gain from the cut, although being too aggressive on any one might ruin the service.
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Bofem
post Nov 9 2010, 09:55 PM
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QUOTE (Iommi @ Nov 9 2010, 07:54 PM) *
although being too aggressive on any one might ruin the service.


It presents many opportunities too.

Take the green meanies. WBC estimates a loss of £240k this year (on top of £200k last year).

http://decisionmaking.westberks.gov.uk/mgC...ch=%22budget%22

For a more substantial saving, we've got primary schools with 30 pupils in the sticks due to stagnant planning policy and nimbyism. But of course, here's where they bottle it (see below).

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/News/Article...articleID=15043



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Michael
post Nov 9 2010, 10:40 PM
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1. Create a charitable trust to run libraries and museums (a la Corn Exchange)
2. Abolish the Education Department (90 staff, I believe)
3. Sell off assets like Greenham House (prime spot for a bit of housing)
4. Get rid of the green meanies - loss-making, unpopular
5. Sell off leisure centres

Bofem, I like your ideas.
I wonder how libraries could become self financing, but why not sell the one in the Wharf to Greenham Common Trust and use the top floor for the Arts Centre?
I'd love to have the chance to review all Council staff and see them in action. I've come across several Council staff who have perfect form filling skills, meeting targets on paper, but who have minimal, if any, impact in reality.
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spartacus
post Nov 9 2010, 11:17 PM
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QUOTE (Michael @ Nov 9 2010, 10:40 PM) *
I'd love to have the chance to review all Council staff and see them in action. I've come across several Council staff who have perfect form filling skills, meeting targets on paper, but who have minimal, if any, impact in reality.

All Council staff?
Really?!

To see them in 'action' Michael? How patronising can some people be... blink.gif ...pathetic

I have no doubt at all that there are council staff who would absolutely welcome your assistance on their rounds Michael. I have a close friend who works in Adult Social Care.. She spends a lot of her off-duty time... her unpaid off-duty time... continuing to work with vulnerable teenagers with severe learning disabilities. She regularly spends weekends taking them out shopping or just spends time with them because she is passionate about her work and knows that she makes a difference to their lives.... She's committed to her work to the point of having to be dragged away to spend a night out for a drink with her mates..

Part of her work involves looking after them in ways someone like you couldn't imagine Michael.. Some of the kids she works with have no family support, are incapable of dressing themselves, going to the toilet on their own, bathing themselves.

Please do volunteer your services Michael, she'll be grateful for someone else stepping forward and holding the bedpan!

Yet you come on here and sneer at the work she does and many others like her do...


I'd love to have a chance to drag muppets like you around, to rub your nose in some of the work she puts up with, which she willingly accepts as 'part of the job' and makes no fuss over...




Yet I suppose you're a finely honed specimen of efficiency, running around the Great Corporate Wheel and generating profits for the company you work for Michael..... How useful.... I'm sure your mum's proud of the 'impact you have on reality' angry.gif


Give me a break....

(And it's not even the rant section ffs... rolleyes.gif ...but your comments and others like it make me mad when I think of the dedication of some who work for a pittance, looking after those you don't give a second thought to)
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Michael
post Nov 10 2010, 12:00 AM
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Yes, Spartacus I'd like to see all Council staff 'in action' rewarding those like you describe, and sacking those like I have seen taking the piss and getting paid for doing a professional job but in reality doing bugger all.
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spartacus
post Nov 10 2010, 12:08 AM
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But is your mum proud of YOU?

And would you allow those same Council staff that you despise, to join you for a day at your place of work and see whether you are the model to aspire to? Or would it confirm you as an oxygen thief....


Or is your main beef with Council staff not showing you enough respect at the benefits desk? laugh.gif
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Michael
post Nov 10 2010, 12:31 AM
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Spartacus, you sound like you're trying to wind me up! Not sure what the pride/otherwise of my Mother adds to the discussion about Council Cuts!

I only despise those Council staff that I have seen with my own eyes taking the piss (I suspect there are more) and I would love those in similar positions to join me for a day at my place of work to see the difference in approach.

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spartacus
post Nov 10 2010, 12:44 AM
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You're the one that wound ME up with your glib, sweeping and generally patronising statement and this assumption that all council staff are taking the pi$$. Tell that to my friend matey boy... she LITERALLY has to wipe the stuff up on a daily basis.... Still... it's part of her job... rolleyes.gif


Anyway.... my rant's over and my spleen has been vented....


What was this thread about?
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Iommi
post Nov 10 2010, 12:47 AM
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QUOTE (spartacus @ Nov 10 2010, 12:44 AM) *
What was this thread about?

A bunch of cuts at the WBC! tongue.gif
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Guest_noobree_*
post Nov 10 2010, 06:25 AM
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Might as well save a few tens of thousands by ending late opening at the libraries. Since WBC introduced charging for car parking in the evening Newbury Library is barely used after 6.00pm. But as has already been pointed out, the big ticket items are related to social care and unless we can find a way of, for example, drastically reducing the numbers of elderly in the town there isn't a lot of room for manoeuvre there.

The fact is that although there is some scope for efficiency savings 25% reductions over the next four years are going to have a huge impact on this country, including massive job losses in the private sector firms who provide many of the products and services which councils use.

Having said that, the WBC calculator doesn't seem to allow the option to look at merging West Berks with other unitary authorities and saving management and support service overheads (HR, IT ec). This is happening elsewhere, of course. http://goo.gl/HpwH2

Perhaps we could go back to a Berkshire County Council, drastically reduce the number of councillors and save all the expenses etc. which currently go to them? I do think councillors should be setting an example here and abolishing themselves whenever possible. How do councillors add value, exactly? Has anyone done a cost benefit analysis of Graham Jones?
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Guest_noobree_*
post Nov 10 2010, 07:01 AM
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Re. Mr Jones and other councillor's costs, they are available here http://www.westberks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=5805 together with all other councillor expenses. Mr Jones received £23,720 in allowances and expenses in the financial year 2009/10. Unfortunately the document doesn't show the total but basic allowance costs appear to be about £360,000 and special responsibility and travelling and subsistence allowances adds another £160,000 based on a quick tally so presumably 25% of that half million or so will be saved.
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Strafin
post Nov 10 2010, 07:40 AM
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QUOTE (spartacus @ Nov 10 2010, 12:44 AM) *
You're the one that wound ME up with your glib, sweeping and generally patronising statement and this assumption that all council staff are taking the pi$$. Tell that to my friend matey boy... she LITERALLY has to wipe the stuff up on a daily basis.... Still... it's part of her job... rolleyes.gif


Anyway.... my rant's over and my spleen has been vented....


What was this thread about?

That's not at all what he said though. He said he would like to review all council staff, not sack them.
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spartacus
post Nov 10 2010, 12:55 PM
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QUOTE (Strafin @ Nov 10 2010, 07:40 AM) *
That's not at all what he said though. He said he would like to review all council staff, not sack them.

Ah... I see now... I should have interpretted it that he was looking to hand out awards then? Compliment them on their diligence maybe?

My bad...
I was grumpy and read it that he was implying that they were all like the several Council staff he'd come across who have perfect form filling skills, meeting targets on paper, but who have minimal, if any, impact in reality.

Now I've read it again I can't imagine how I might have thought he was implying that every council worker, be they dedicated adult social support worker or efficient form-filler, was a waste of space... rolleyes.gif
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Bofem
post Nov 10 2010, 01:03 PM
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There's some merit in Michael's comments, although it may have been expressed a little more sensitively.

But let's look at the detail of the education department. Some of these jobs include making sure schools spend their s106 developer contributions! And guess what, many of our schools are NOT expanding their schools to cope with new housing, despite having the money to do so. However good the WBC staff may be, the system isn't working.

Or perhaps the Extended Schools Team. These people are to advise and encourage schools to be open for the wider community. Lovely idea, but in reality, caretakers are reluctant. In Greenham, they had a multi-games area put in at the Willows School, which the caretaker then closed in the evenings! In East Ilsley, they have no village hall and wanted to use the school...could they persuade the school to open? I'm not sure whether the Extended Schools team are hindering or helping us get the best out of school buildings.

But this isn't personal against WBC's Education team. There are 60 in the Policy and Communications team. Their job is (largely) to bring in Whitehall targets at local level, plus preparing agendas and reports for councillors, and consultations.
Do we need that many now so much regulation is falling away?

I just hope this budgetsimulator isn't to be used as a smokescreen for making unpopular decisions, when easier options which save/enhance local services haven't been explored.



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