Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-11175413 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 The proposed job losses will reduce the number of council staff from 6,500 to 5,000 over the next three years. Still a lot of staff - what do they all do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim123 Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Um two thirds of council owned farms to be sold off. WTF are they doing owing them in the first place? tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionTerror Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 SCC had £25m with Icesave...http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7662599.stm I wonder if they got that back? Over a thousand are going voluntarily (no doubt with hefty final salary pensions)... I remember reading about a chap who was employed at county hall to chart the history of Somerset. He'd been at it for nearly 40 years (and I think he was on roughly £35k a year), and he'd only got through roughly a third of the work... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grey shark Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 (edited) Still a lot of staff - what do they all do? Half of them push pens and shuffle pieces of paper the other half actually do worthwhile and meaningful jobs ....... Edited September 3, 2010 by grey shark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wombat999 Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Um two thirds of council owned farms to be sold off. WTF are they doing owing them in the first place? tim they rent them out to tennant farmres. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OnionTerror Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 they rent them out to tennant farmres. They have 60 farms and over 6000 acres of land they rent out.. http://www.somerset.gov.uk/irj/public/services/directory/service?rid=/wpccontent/Sites/SCC/Web%20Pages/Services/Services/Southwest%20One/County%20Farms Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kilroy Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Um two thirds of council owned farms to be sold off. WTF are they doing owing them in the first place? tim getting out beofre single payment scheme ceases in 2012 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Just the start, let the bodies hit the floor...let the Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnny Storm Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Over 3 years? That's pathetic. What is the natural turn over of staff anyway. You know, people that quit for other jobs, get sacked, retire etc? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingsgate Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Most councils could easily half their work force. They just have to stop imagining that they have to deal with EVERYTHING. Just stop doing so much. Get rid of anything involving the words "outreach" for starters.Stop translating every council document into umpteen languages - other countries do not do this for Brits living abroad, for example. Get rid of jobs involving nannying people or trying to tell them how to live their lives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killer Bunny Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Half of them push pens and shuffle pieces of paper the other half actually do worthwhile and meaningful jobs ....... push and shuffle them back again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
man o' the year Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 (edited) The proposed job losses will reduce the number of council staff from 6,500 to 5,000 over the next three years. Still a lot of staff - what do they all do? Half of them sit round a fire burning £5 notes from my business rates and the other half spend their time thinking up ways to make it more difficult for me to run my business. Edited September 3, 2010 by man o' the year Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Apparently they have loads of bank charges to pay - BBC News Channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nationalist Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 At the newsagent opposite my office building one council dept told them to put in a ramp for disabled access. So they did. Another dept then told them they weren't allowed a ramp and made them knock it down and put steps back. So they did. Who will do this vital work if we sack council workers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginnie Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 In Hereford this summer, the Council dug up and tarmaced a flower bed quite literally adjacent to another flower bed so that they could park their vehicle on it when they needed to tend the second flower bed. The locals complained and within three weeks the tarmac was pulled up and the flower bed reinstated. God help us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nationalist Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 In Hereford this summer, the Council dug up and tarmaced a flower bed quite literally adjacent to another flower bed so that they could park their vehicle on it when they needed to tend the second flower bed. The locals complained and within three weeks the tarmac was pulled up and the flower bed reinstated. God help us! OK, you win! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Posted September 3, 2010 Author Share Posted September 3, 2010 http://www.swindonadvertiser.co.uk/news/8336929.Council_axes_lobbyist_deal/ Now let me try and understand this - councils are spending millions of pounds on hiring lobbyists to communicate with the government on their behalf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingsgate Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 There is a tendency for councils to get above themselves. It is a consequence of human nature, people's desire to "big up" their job and their importance. It is a plain fact that most of what local councils do is boring, routine stuff - keeping streets clean, collecting litter, roadworks, car parks, funding local schools, planning enforcement, etc etc. People go into council jobs as a career, get frustrated at how routine and dull it all is, and then they find ways to increase the council's role because it makes them feel more important, more innovative, etc. Hence councils always expanding their role, nosing into people's lives, etc. This tendency needs to be resisted - it won't go away because it is human nature to empire-build. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tim123 Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 they rent them out to tennant farmres. That's the point. Why get involved in such a commercial venture at all? tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dissident junk Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Councils can sometimes have a lot of "legacy" spend. For example, one very deprived London borough back in the 90s discovered it owned a series of holiday chalets and bathing huts on the East Coast and was also paying for a housekeeper and a gardener to tend to the property. The property had been a legacy from the inter-war period when they used to take borough children to the sea-side. Makes you wonder who actually runs the books for some of these councils. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wayo Posted September 3, 2010 Share Posted September 3, 2010 Get rid of anything involving the words "outreach" for starters. Why? Outreach is actually posh council speak for front line. They are people who help the disabled, unemployed and homeless and divert youths from a path of crime. In other words the last people they should be getting rid of, not the first. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
right_freds_dead Posted September 4, 2010 Share Posted September 4, 2010 the 'cider council' is looking a bit shoddy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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