[Closed] Whats your local council wasteing money on.............

Some part of my post clearly didn't get through.

More 'democracy 101'

Councillors are YOUR elected representatives, to a large extent they tell the council WHAT to do, the Chief Exec and Council Officers then decide HOW to do that most efficiently and effectively. If you don't like WHAT they are doing (building a big green flashing c0ck beside a river, for instance) then tell your councillor or stand against them. Councillors mostly want to be loved (and re-elected), if you point out to them that what they are doing with your money isn't going to get them re-elected then you'll be able to influence them.

Not where I live but where I work the council have decided to spend many hundred thousand pounds and numerous months replacing perfectly acceptable pavements around a distinctly teriary shopping parade with much much nicer block paving and dreamy smooth tarmac. Haven't a clue why, the old stuff was fine and would have lasted for years.

Evidence as I call BS

A council had some environmental advice, part of which was to cut the grass less often on verges. This caused great consternation with the grass cutting men, who were losing wages, so ultimately a relatively simple recommendation created a situation where an entire new incentive system had to be worked out. This was given as an example in a lecture by someone who was there.

I don't think this situation has been described in any peer reviewed journals or newspapers though, which is scandalous, given the importance of small scale pay disputes in local councils.

[url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8284533.stm ]A guide to help the over 50s enjoy a bit of how's your father.[/url]

Still not convinced but I admire your sarcastic tone 😆

miaowing_kat - Member
Not my council but a few of my friends from Aberdeen are rather angry by the council's decision to concrete over the city gardens.

Yeah I live in Aberdeen and this is a complete disgrace......as you can imagine £120M buys a hell of a lot of slabs (and friends!)!

[url= http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1750197 ]http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1750197[/url]

richcc - Member
Some part of my post clearly didn't get through.

More 'democracy 101'

Councillors are YOUR elected representatives, to a large extent they tell the council WHAT to do, the Chief Exec and Council Officers then decide HOW to do that most efficiently and effectively. If you don't like WHAT they are doing (building a big green flashing c0ck beside a river, for instance) then tell your councillor or stand against them. Councillors mostly want to be loved (and re-elected), if you point out to them that what they are doing with your money isn't going to get them re-elected then you'll be able to influence them.

+1

Many council's are run like mini parliaments. They often even have councillors with portfolio's such as envirnoment, community etc. These same councillors also represent a particular ward within that council boundary.

Local councillors (the ones that people voted for) decide policy and practice then this goes to the council (the ones you are moaning about) to do that.

Within that there is a scrutiny panel of councillors that work cross party that act as a check and balance. They are often seeking public say and involvement.

There is also area committees or forums (Real ones not internet based) that councillors attend that listen to the views of local people and discuss problems and solutions in that area. You are often invited to these meetings and you are able to see the minutes and agenda's usually up on the website. These (and you) often have powers to change things locally.

They will also more than likely have a citizens panel for the public to act like a focus group and on top of that invite comments and consultation on many things.

Few links for the genuinly interested

http://openlylocal.com/

My Council

http://openlylocal.com/councils/71-Leeds-City-Council

Consultations

https://consult.leeds.gov.uk/leeds/kms/dmart.aspx?LoggingIn=tempVar&noip=1&filter_status=1

Problem is that the council invites comments and feedback and generally gets a lot of winging after the fact. If you have a gripe get involved and change it.

Anyway rant over, back to work.

oh and interesting that the government waste money (not Whitehall) but the council waste money (not the councillors)

We had comments on one of our online consultations which asked for views on certain plans complaining that they hadn't been consulted!

@richcc - in the case of the Cambs Guided Bus, *lots* of people wrote and complained, went to public meetings, complained some more, and who knows what else.

The county council still went ahead and built the thing, and it's sat there like some great grey slug right now, with no prospect of being opened any time soon, since the council don't have the requisite £30-40M needed to pay the contractors for the extra (disputed) work.

So they're going to fight it out in court for the next few years.

My point? Sometimes there's just an inevitability about these things that can't be stopped. The council is going to spend a ton of money on something useless and no power on earth can stop them.

Guided busway why not just cal it a bus lane and paint white lines a lot cheaper,than concrete troughs.

Oversized firestations...occupying a phenomenal amount of land.

Occupied with some of the lowest mileaged fleet in the world!

I thought the Cambridge guided busway was mostly funded by central govt, (ie all of us via tax).
Like most people, the councillors like spending money, especially when it's not their own, so it was always going to be built, whatever the objections.
Now they're getting a bit worried because of the cost overrun. That isn't going to come from central govt. so it will drag out for years in the courts.
(But is is a very good cycle track, so long as you don't fall down the gap in the middle.)

We're getting this to replace the current skate park
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Not my local council, but a neighbouring one:

http://www.dreamsthelens.com/site.do

Was "sold" to the local population as overlooking St Helens, sadly the face looks south over Cheshire & Widnes..........and can't really be seen from many places in St Helens, only if you drive past on the M62.

The reclaimed land is turning into a nice little playground for short evening rides though, so that's a bonus!

My old council at Sunderland has just spent £70,000 putting some concrete blocks into a playpark for the kids to play on, replacing the more traditional swings etc. - they looked like a fractured skull waiting to happen.

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After complaints they've been removed.

Temporary bride spanning the weak one at t'bottom of our road.
Been there years now - so long the rental on the temporary one has, apparently, outstripped cost to repair the 'weak' one...

Probably best not mention the George Square redevelopment in town centre Hudds either....

Still, at least they did not quite run out of grit when needed, they are pretty good at that round 'ere.....

Anybody got a council that are anywhere near providing the Sustrans multi-user routes that they outlined in the local plan?

project - Member

Strangely yje councils have a duty under law to maintain and keep the roads clear, they dont need new offices,new desks and car parks dedicated to them selves,theyre just empire building at the cost to us the council tax payer.

Project, you forgot to mention that your council sold their old HQ to the Univercity of Chester so that the univercity can house the new faculties of education and children’s services and health and social care.

So that means [u]EVEN MORE[/u] teachers and social workers !!!!!!

Knowing just how much you despise teachers and social workers project, you must be absolutely incandescent with rage - at the thought of all this helping to train more teachers and social workers.

In fact, I can pick up strange distant rumblings here in South London.

@richmars

I thought the Cambridge guided busway was mostly funded by central govt, (ie all of us via tax).

Wikipedia says not. £98M from central govt. Another £17M was supposed to come from developers, but they've all gone into hiding. So the council has had to borrow *£60M* to cover the shortfall, and is presumably hoping to recover some of it from BAM Nuttall by arguing about cost overruns and the like in court.

Could pay quite a few teachers with the interest on £60M, even in these days of artificially low interest rates.

Although in practice there's no way they'd spend that on teachers - it would go on digging up bridleways for no good reason whatsoever.....

(But is is a very good cycle track, so long as you don't fall down the gap in the middle.)

It's a *rubbish* cycle track, because no-one can agree which side they should cycle on. If you go down it at rush hour you have to keep getting on and off it 🙂

My local council is wasting money on festival's celebrating hetrosexuality.

Its disgusting, couples, men gyrating and pointing towards females with alot of promiscuous sex in a unsafe environment.

Ernie i do so love your instinctive understanding of myself.

i do so love your instinctive understanding of myself

No, I don't rely on "instinct".

I find that you provide me with all the necessary information with your regular rants concerning public sector workers in general, and teachers and social workers in particular.

Yes, I hear you and understand you.............no great mystery really.

i am both a social worker and a teacher
BBBBBBBBRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNTTTTTTT

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I dont practice either anymore the shame of helping people improve their lives was too much for me to bear

Junkyard, 🙂

Not my local council but favourite waste of space and money is Barnard Castle Vision guided by a thousand voices (apparently) whilst not really listening to them. At the moment its working its way through five million on visionary schemes for the town. Whilst all the locals want is the toilets refurbished.

Seems to be a case of lunatics have visions whilst real visionaries have dreams.

i am both a social worker and a teacher

[i]And[/i] you read the Guardian........................ffs 😐

😆 at you both

Is it not a PFI arrangement they've moved to?

what? everything!! its all about the juicy pensions, long term sick, quangos, courses, conventions and information gathering, isn't the public sector mostly there to reduce unemployment now? they spend our money so we can earn money so they can tax us to spend it so we can earn it!!! haha thanks how can we have been so stupid spend away dynamic go getting business crusaders of the public sector, thanks for saving our economic bacon, your not underperformers at all!! 😈

You read the Guardian? I know someone very senior up the ladder there.....and yes I am royally a windup to this poor person (who gets v.angry)...... 🙂

my local council just spent 14million on roadworks for bendy buses!!! Swansea is not that big a city and the buses are now mostly empty. what gets me though is that the council have payed for the infrastructure so a private company can profit (1.20 for a ticket 1/3 of a mile ?????)
the city is now a nasty, slow, useless, one way system that directs traffic through the city-centre or around a maze of residential streets.

You read the Guardian?