Sorry to start another political thread, but I have just published our alternative to the spending cuts at Wesdt Berks here: http://www.newburylabourparty.org/a-better-way

Forget that it's a Labour Party plan for a second, what do you think of the content? Hopefully the Tories will think twice before attacking public services again. We could have saved more than £12m, but we just don't have the detail to see what some departments do and what we could actually cut.

It's all Greek to me.

Quoted from 78

It's all Greek to me.

Luckily I can read Greek -

AXE free parking for council employees: Estimated saving - £1.3m a year
· Sell Market Street car park, Newbury Bus station and Faraday road assets to pay off our share of Berkshire County Council debt: £4m a year in debt interest
· Library savings: £300k a year (Currently £2.1m a year)
· Tender bus network to operators rather than awarding contracts to Reading busses: Potential savings of £300k a year (Estimates suggest we give Reading busses £2.5m a year)
· Cost centre 45253 Accountancy: Save £300k per year (Currently £1.3m)
· PR Team: Save £50k a year (currently £150k)
· We don’t know what the corporate general office does, but do we really need to spend £330k a year? Possible saving: £100k a year
· Cost centre 41024 – Partnership team: Save £100k (Currently £340k a year)
· Democratic Services team: Save £100k (Currently £300k a year)
· Reduce number of elected members to one per ward: Save £132k a year
· Axe an executive portfolio position and a shadow exec position: Save £12k a year
· Legal services (43030): Save £100k a year
· 48610, 48620, 48626 – Graphic design & print: Save £300k a year (Currently over £600k)
· Customer service (48514) – Save £150k a year (currently £450k a year)
· ICT management: Save £50k a year (currently £150k a year)
· HR Operations team: Save £75k a year (currently £275k a year)
· HR information & recruitment team: Save £50k a year (currently £250k a year)
· Policy & Strategy team: Save £50k a year (currently £200k a year)
· Cost centres 40120 & 40121: HR admin - Save £100k a year (these positions duplicate HR operations)
· Cost centre 40030: Corporate management: What does it do? Is this a possible £260k saving per year? We do already have a corporate general office?
· Faraday Road offices will be sold: £140k a year saving in running costs
· Bus station: £50k a year saving (now closed)
· Environmental health: Possible £60k a year saving (currently £660k)
· Waste contract: Prevent £2.5m overspend
· Waste services operations: Should this not be included within the waste contract? Possible saving of £550k a year
· Trading standards: Possible saving of £60k (currently £560k a year)
· Cost centre 13800: Transportation planning: 250k a year plus cost centre 19960 (transport admin): £947,740 = £1.2m on transport planning and admin. Is this value for money? I suggest we could save around £500k a year.
· Planning policy: Save £80k a year (currently £480k a year)
· Shaw House: Save £60k per year (currently £460k a year)
· Corn exchange: Save £80k a year (currently £480k a year)
· Newbury cinema: Save £100k a year as subsidy not required
· Social care reform: Not sure if savings can be made, but we have spent almost £600k on the new Tory reforms. This is just one example of Tory extravagance that has put us in this mess.
· Cost centre 45560: Contact Centre: Save £210k a year (Currently £810k a year)
Yearly savings: Roughly £12m – possibly more if we could see more detailed financial accounts

Quoted from 78

We don’t know what the corporate general office does, but do we really need to spend £330k a year? Possible saving: £100k a year

I didn't read any of the guff on the website, other than to scan through the list of "possible savings". But how can you estimate saving £100K a year from a department, if you have no idea what the department does? I'm positive I must be missing something, because otherwise this is just a list of departments, their current budgets, and then a lower figure next to it that you appear to have just made up?

Quoted from massifheed

I didn't read any of the guff on the website, other than to scan through the list of "possible savings". But how can you estimate saving £100K a year from a department, if you have no idea what the department does? I'm positive I must be missing something, because otherwise this is just a list of departments, their current budgets, and then a lower figure next to it that you appear to have just made up?

In my browser the entire plan is in Greek characters. I had to cut & paste it into word & change the fonts to read it. I cut & pasted it above incase anyone else was also only seeing Greek.

I agree  -plucking 'savings' without saying how & where those savings will be made is a childish exercise.  

Not at all, we have a corporate office, corporate service team and corporate management costing around a million in total.

http://www.westberks.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=852

You want the 2010/11 budget book. The fact is, West Berks are deliberately witholding information, the question is why? We have done what we can with the information available and have deliberately avoided raiding the elderly and youth services.

Quoted from richard.garvie

We have done what we can with the information available

Then you have indeed just made some of the figures up? If WBC hasn't provided you with information on the department, and if you dont already know what it does and how it is run, then you are just guessing, right? How do you draw your conclusions on a department's budget, if you dont know what that department does? Surely it's better to leave the things out that you dont have information on, than just make the figures up? It doesn't give you much credibility, does it?

Quoted from massifheed

Then you have indeed just made some of the figures up? If WBC hasn't provided you with information on the department, and if you dont already know what it does and how it is run, then you are just guessing, right? How do you draw your conclusions on a department's budget, if you dont know what that department does? Surely it's better to leave the things out that you dont have information on, than just make the figures up? It doesn't give you much credibility, does it?

We did as much research as we could, so we know bits about everything we cut. There are one or two departments that seem to have no real purpose, and requests for information were ignored, which is scary.

Perhaps you should explain how you're going to save all this cash rather than publish a load of meaningless numbers, unless you're just going to cut staff in each department which means you're going further than the Tories and Lib Dems in terms of cutting public services.

I agree.

Garvie now looks hell bent on forum-domination on here also.

Let's face it, Labour ruined this country over 13 awful years of boom and now the bust. The party is an irrelevance, both nationwide and in West Berks.

And Garvie; how is that Trotsykite Tony Blair who started a war in the Middle East gets a position as a "peace envoy" to...you guessed it..the Middle East!

Have you seen his mansion in Buckinghamshire? The perfect pad for a Bollinger Bolshevik like him and his ilk. SHAME!

No, we would cut waste and excess spending, rather than axing services on which people rely. Yes, £12m is more than what the tories propose to do this year, but the overall cuts to spending over the next four financial years will be the same overall (28%). Personally, I'm all for making sure that the council lives within it's means. I will not stand by and watch as the vulnerable see there services slashed whilst we spend lots of money on budget simulators that don't even tell you what you are cutting. For too many years we have wasted money on the non essentials when we should have been saving and investing in infrastructure and the future.

Quoted from richard.garvie

No, we would cut waste and excess spending, rather than axing services on which people rely. Yes, £12m is more than what the tories propose to do this year, but the overall cuts to spending over the next four financial years will be the same overall (28%). Personally, I'm all for making sure that the council lives within it's means. I will not stand by and watch as the vulnerable see there services slashed whilst we spend lots of money on budget simulators that don't even tell you what you are cutting. For too many years we have wasted money on the non essentials when we should have been saving and investing in infrastructure and the future.

How do you know any of this is excess spending?

Let's take two examples,

Democratic Services team: Save £100k (Currently £300k a year)
Environmental health: Possible £60k a year saving (currently £660k)

Explain how you'd cut waste here.

I propose to cut funding for Tony Blair's bodyguards.

Is he worth guarding...er, no.

Garvie would probably rather see us return to the days of strikes, Tony Benn, Derek Hatton and tax and spend big state socialism.

Some never learn.

I propose to cut funding for Tony Blair's bodyguards.

Is he worth guarding...er, no.

Garvie would probably rather see us return to the days of strikes, Tony Benn, Derek Hatton and tax and spend big state socialism.

Some never learn.

I propose to cut funding for Tony Blair's bodyguards.

Is he worth guarding...er, no.

Garvie would probably rather see us return to the days of strikes, Tony Benn, Derek Hatton and tax and spend big state socialism.

Some never learn.