We are all in it together. Options

[Andy1]

A good Salesman or Executive is rewarded with commission or bonuses. A good Nurse or Soldier is rewarded with more work a medal or another tour of a war zone.

[Strafin]

A good Salesman or Executive is rewarded with commission or bonuses. A good Nurse or Soldier is rewarded with more work a medal or another tour of a war zone.

Soldiers and nurses get promoted, and increased pay, just like everybody else.

[Andy Capp]

A good Salesman or Executive is rewarded with commission or bonuses.

So are bad ones!

[Andy1]

Soldiers and nurses get promoted, and increased pay, just like everybody else.

This is true but for the vast majority who follow, who don't have the leadership skills or maybe the education, just get on and do without question. Some of those same people are then just tossed on the heap with no pension, prospects or respect.

[blackdog]

Well again, I haven't actually "bashed" anyone, and I believe council tax has gone up every year recently, I could be wrong on that though. However what I am suggesting is that it's not always a bad thing to cut stuff.

WBC's council tax was frozen last year - but your bill might have gone up a bit if the other elements (police, fire service, parish) went up.

However, you are totally wrong about the rise being above government targets - the government set a maximum of 2%. WBC is proposing a rise of slightly less than 2%. Councils are free to set even higher rises, but the government would then punish them by reducing grants, similarly they promise to increase grants to councils that don't raise the tax.

Pickles as since come out blustering about perfidious councils daring to put up council tax by just below the limit! If he thought they would do anything else he must be mad.

WBC's budget is falling at the same time as costs are rising and government grants are reducing - a below-inflation increase in council tax is not that bad considering.

[On the edge]

Its difficult to have a sensible debate because the minute anyone starts suggesting simple economics we have histrionics about military and medical providers. Efficiency and economy should be in all things, as the last Government and our previous Council administrations have amply proved you don't solve problems by throwing money at them.

Yes, our local government is cutting costs; very good and well done. However, there is a way to go. We should be properly assessing everything in all services and I for one am not convinced that's the case right now. For instance, have we had a serious look at slimming down the management structures at WBC, does a Police Helicopter really and honestly give full value, etc.etc. etc.

Similarly, nationally, far better examples should be set. Why are we still using versions of the Barnett formula paying out far more to Scotland than justified or necessary? Why are we not demanding significant changes to procurement rules to eliminate costly overhead and extortionate contract prices. NHS in particular suffers from that and has becoming a cash cow for drugs companies, suffering from the same malaise as Defence procurement.

If we really are all in this together, then we would all be striving for economy and efficiency, no matter what our role in life.

NOTE = the words economy and efficiency do not mean cheap and nasty, quite the reverse.

[dannyboy]

If council staff worked harder, we could perhaps manage with less of them.

That could be applied to all forms of employment & labour. If my woman worked harder I wouldn't have to employ a Swedish au pair.

[On the edge]

That could be applied to all forms of employment & labour. If my woman worked harder I wouldn't have to employ a Swedish au pair.

Its very often not about 'working harder', more about better and more effective process. That is often just better management. You are right about elsewhere, the Post Office is a classic example. What other retail business would have customers queuing for so long and such inane practices and processes at the 'tills. Simple straightforward transactions take for ever and are still stuck in paper and ink, one could be forgiven for thinking this is deliberate. Look at the Application form for the technical college, a whole page of 'ethnic monitoring' questions. Some poor clerk will have to spend time entering that into the system and then some middle managers will spend hours pouring over the resultant statistics. Why? What difference has this ever made? If we don't get this right soon, no prospective au pair will want to come here, you'll have an aid worker instead.

[JeffG]

the Post Office is a classic example. What other retail business would have customers queuing for so long and such inane practices and processes at the 'tills.

It's a puzzle to me what people use the Post Office for. In my case, it's not much more than an annual trip to buy Christmas stamps, or recently, to pick up a passport renewal form because the online system was broken (and that lasts ten years )

[Andy Capp]

...or recently, to pick up a passport renewal form because the online system was broken (and that lasts ten years )

It's been broken for ten years!

[JeffG]

It's been broken for ten years!

Yes, I could have constructed that sentence better.

[Strafin]

It's a puzzle to me what people use the Post Office for. In my case, it's not much more than an annual trip to buy Christmas stamps, or recently, to pick up a passport renewal form because the online system was broken (and that lasts ten years )

I have to go next month for car tax, and to renew my driving license. I also have picked up holiday money in the past. I suspect there's a lot of "ebayers" who use it more regularly.

[Exhausted]

I have to go next month for car tax, and to renew my driving license. I also have picked up holiday money in the past. I suspect there's a lot of "ebayers" who use it more regularly.

That latter is the case. Posting a parcel has all the problems associated with the inefficiencies of the post office. How they themselves wonder why the commercial carriers are stealing the business I don't know. Parcelforce has to be the way the postal service should look to the future. Unlike a letter, you can't send a parcel by email. Instead I have to queue through the shop behind a load of people who want to pay a gas bill or something and then have to weigh my parcel, as at St John's, wait while the person on the other side of the glass grudgingly tells me what it will cost, poke my money under the glass and then get my change thrown into a cup. Upwards of 15 minutes from start to finish.
The main post office has no parking and seems to always have a queue of twenty or thirty people so I don't use it but the alternative is almost as bad since the other post offices were closed.
Wouldn't it be an idea to have self service parcel positions something like the self checkouts in B&Q and the supermarkets. A proper Parcelforce reception point with parking outside. In fact I'm sure that there must be loads of other facilities which do not need some person with a strong right arm and a circular rubber stamp.

[Squelchy]

Parcelforce has to be the way the postal service should look to the future.

You are aware that Parcelforce is owned and run by the Royal Mail aren't you?

[JeffG]

then have to weigh my parcel, as at St John's, wait while the person on the other side of the glass grudgingly tells me what it will cost, poke my money under the glass and then get my change thrown into a cup.

Well, that's not been my experience at St. John's post office. Staff have always been pleasant enough when I've been there.

Yes, I guess it's mostly people who need to send parcels. Car tax renewal is a couple of clicks on line, then it arrives in the post a couple of days later.

[Strafin]

Well, that's not been my experience at St. John's post office. Staff have always been pleasant enough when I've been there.

Yes, I guess it's mostly people who need to send parcels. Car tax renewal is a couple of clicks on line, then it arrives in the post a couple of days later.

You can only renew on line if you have already renewed once before. I bought a car in January so I have to go and do it in person, which seems ridiculous to me.

[JeffG]

You can only renew on line if you have already renewed once before. I bought a car in January so I have to go and do it in person, which seems ridiculous to me.

They probably need a DNA swab or something to prove you are who you say you are The reason is probably that your personal information is not set up until after the first renewal - that seems the only logical explanation. Doesn't the garage you bought it from arrange the first disc? It's a while since I bought my car, so I don't remember.

[Strafin]

Not for the money I paid

[Exhausted]

You are aware that Parcelforce is owned and run by the Royal Mail aren't you?

Yes of course. I was suggesting how they might recover their share of the market by a little modern technology.

[GMR]

Silly me.... never thought of that

Who said I was moaning? I was just stating a fact. Anyway, it is tax payers money and if you are happy then so be it.