Wednesday, Sep 15, 2010
Council chief Mohammed Mehmet described the situation as “extremely challenging.”
North wales daily post: Services under threat as North Wales councils face £130m cuts
Across the region authorities are facing tough financial decisions.
Flintshire’s revenue shortfall over the next three years is £29m, of which £10m must be found in 2011-2012.
Wrexham is expecting cuts of £30m over three years.
In Conwy the three-year figure is £21.8m, which is 12% of the council’s base budget
Ynys Môn must find savings of £10m.
Earlier this year Gwynedd Council announced savings of £16m were needed between this year and 2012-2013. But Corporate Director Dilwyn Williams said yesterday: “Our preliminary analysis of the UK Government’s recent emergency budget suggests that we may need to deliver up to £35m of further savings between 2011-2012 and 2014-2015.”
Posted by mark @ 12:51 PM (1315 views) Add Comment
24 Comments
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1. mark said...
They say cuts in services, however unless they cut staff things will never change they simply can't keep cutting services every year.
2. mark said...
from an email sent to me today
The trafficlight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the street. I was crossing with a co-worker of mine.
She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for. I explained that it signals to blind people when the light is red.
Appalled, she responded, 'What on earth are blind people doing driving?!'
She is a local Council employee in Harrow, Middlesex , UK
3. smugdog said...
What exactly does your successful company do Mark?
4. mark said...
SmugDog breeding
5. inbreda said...
by breeding dogs with tw@s?
6. mark said...
lol yeh... actually by crossing a d**khe*d and tw%t
7. inbreda said...
naughty us - poor smuggy - it's not his fault that we are bitter and twisted and he is hugely successful.
No - I really mean it - it's not his fault that he is hugely successful.
8. sibley's b'stard child said...
@ Inbreda
I guess it depends on how you define 'success'...
9. smugdog said...
I ask a reasonable and polite question and get bombarded with insults.
Perhaps all is not well. By all means, use me as a punch bag if it dulls the pain.
I really hope that you pull through this awkward phase in your business
and general wellbeing.
10. timmy t said...
What do you do smuggy?
11. smugdog said...
I raise my hind legs and drag my tanned ar$e along the beach most of the year.
But it's not about me; it's about the thousands of decent folk worrying about their jobs.
And you Timmy, other than sip Hobgoblin all day long?
12. timmy t said...
Not much really - by the time I've finished Hobgoblining and HPC'ing it's time for bed.
13. jack c said...
@smugdog - there is a lot of reasonable debate (IMO) that goes on here but you never (again IMO) actively participte - absolutely nothing wrong with bulls entering the debate but surely reasoned argument backed by some facts and figures is essential to carry any credibility. How about for once you make a sensible contribution?
14. Crunchy said...
11. smugdog said..."I raise my hind legs and drag my tanned ar$e along the beach most of the year."
Nothing a bit of worming treatment can't cure smuggy. HPC humour has not vanished completely.
15. titaniccaptain said...
"Council chief Mohammed Mehmet"....great Welsh name.....nearly as good as Dai Patel (Actual person).
These Job loses are not all council jobs though....must not forget that many projects are outsourced into the private sector...would love to know how much of the council budget is outsourced to the private sector.....any estimates chaps?
16. drewster said...
Now now kids....
The original article posted by Mark tells us that big cuts are required. As Mark points out in post #1, these cuts can either be in internal staff numbers, or in outsourced services (e.g. by paying less money to Biffa / Sita / Onyx, resulting in fewer rubbish collections). Job losses are guaranteed - either in the council or in the outsourced company. The first question is how many jobs and (for the people affected) whose jobs. The second question is what effect will this have on the wider economy, including (for the purposes of this website) house prices.
17. drewster said...
titanic - You could send a Freedom of Information request out to your local council to find out.
It's tricky to define though. If a council buys a new minibus every three years to drive disabled kids to school, is that outsourcing? If budgets are cut and they decide to keep running the same minibus for six years instead of three, then the minibus manufacturer will be unhappy. If they have lease, rather than own, the minibus, what does that count as?
There are (as far as I can tell) four categories of local government spending:
1) Staff costs
2) Internal expenses (office rent/maintenance, heating, paperclips, phone bill, computers, minibuses, etc.)
3) Outsourced regular services (e.g. bin collection, street cleaning, meals-on-wheels for the elderly/disabled)
4) Commissioned ad-hoc services (e.g. build a new school, re-pave a road, install park benches)
I would say #3 is the hardest to cut; and #4 is probably the easiest. Thoughts?
18. mark said...
Drewster the disabled mini buses in some areas are contract from taxi firms, I know a guy who runs several of these buses and the income is exceptional, although he has to allow for an escort to sit with drivers. (not that type of escort either) lol
19. titaniccaptain said...
Think I will look into that Drewster...
Mark I was one of those Escorts myself....
Some of those kids were very ill.....I remember escorting a kid who had a seizure every couple of mins....heartbreaking.
On a more humorous note I had to sit with two 15 year olds with behaviour problems i.e. They would try and jump out of the bus at 70mph or try and strangle the driver.
Yes Taxi companies have huge contracts with local authorities and in particular with the local health authorities.
I used to run blood around Wales from the Blood bank (No pun intended) for emergency operations.....even had a police escort whilst I drove at 100mph + to get blood to Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr with the operating theatre virtually on the phone to me asking where the blood was....The Irony was I could have caused more deaths by driving at that speed than lives saved...but that is what was asked of us.
Strange to get a police escort at that speed though......why couldn't the police have dropped it off?
ah well.
Councils don't usually buy buses for the main ferrying of children although most schools have a minibus....the bulk of school transport is outsourced.
Also most care in the community is done by private companies paid for by the local authority unless the individual meets the continuing care criteria which means the care is covered by the NHS.
20. jack c said...
Work this one out
Speaking with a friend of mine - so is your wife still working as the school secretary in the local junior school? Oh no she has a much better paid job now but at the same school - thats good what does she do now? Well she travels in taxis each morning picking up children who otherwise wouldnt attend school simply because they and the parents cant be bothered to get there on time ! and more often than not just wouldnt attend. I also indirectly know the taxi firm and the owner(s) - the drivers are on £20 per hour.
21. vinrouge said...
Cut the waste in their outsourced services such as highly expensive managment consultants, rather than the necessary ones like rubbish collection.
If the incumbent public service managers are so wonderful, why do they need them at all?
They could also cut any future "fact finding missions" and "managment conferences" especially abroad.
22. titaniccaptain said...
@Jack C
20 quid an hour....trouble is the school runs only last for an hour twice a day....also they usually only get 40% of the profit of any run.....also the petrol isn't included. Drivers usually get around 15 quid a day for the taxi runs after everything.
You would surprised how little the Taxi bosses pass onto their driver.....BUT......if the boss is particularly bad you would be surprised how little the driver passes onto the boss.
I had a boss who pushed me into driving a car with bald tires for 30% of the profit....I should have told him where to shove it but I didn't.....and guess what...I crashed.
After that day my boss was on 30%.......there's an old line used by taxi drivers to their boss.."There was nothing out there so I just drove around looking for fares".
The average taxi driver in Merthyr will take 50 quid between 7am and 4pm.....40% of which is his.
Its not even minimum wage most of the time.
Go back 10 years ago and he could make 200 quid a day......those days are gone......there are at least triple the amount of taxis in Merthyr than there was 10 years ago.
This is a scenario repeated across most of the UK.
Most taxi drivers are not dodgy....but only the dodgy ones make good money......there is more than one way to make money with a cab.
23. jack c said...
titaniccaptain - yep I know several taxi drivers (good guys) and most are now struggling to make in 7 days what they used to make in 2. All the same its ridiculous (IMO) that we have people riding around escorting kids to school in the mornings who are quite capable of getting there under their own steam if they/parents had the desire to to so. Interesting to see if this does actually change under the Con-dems.
24. Simon said...
If who the public sector calls "managers" and pays management salarys to really are managers then they must implement cuts in the best way they can .
Instead they are finding reasons under the sun for avoiding it and doing it in the most damaging way to court public opinion .
Conclusion , they aren't really managers and should be demoted or dismissed .
The choice is get on with cutting now or face cutting more deeply later .