Don’t councils understand that prevention is cheaper than fixing

He may well be but it would be a disaster if anything happend to him while clearing the drains.
Imagine the uproar.

My experience working in strategic positions across multiple authorities.

That’s why there’s suddenly loads of roadworks at the end of the financial year.

Good example is the levelling up fund - you can’t just move funding across. It all has to be detailed in your budget and cross referenced back via cost codes.

in fact the way this works is the exact reason I am employed in the capacity I am - contractors will get paid via a budget for a particular scheme.

It’s true at the LA I work at. Once you lose that budget it’s never coming back. So all the foremen and supervisors guard their budgets with zeal. It really discourages the finding of efficiencies though as doing x should take y amount of time.

A friend was involved in a local primary school in a chaplaincy role and the school's IT wasn't great. The HT apologised for it and said that it was due to be replaced. He has a knowledge of IT and offered to help source the best value equipment, but the HT had to decline because all procurement had to be from council approved suppliers; the replacement equipment cost far more than it would have done if my friend had been able to help.

What are you basing this on? Because it's not the case at the LA I work at.

Flooding is cities is not caused by climate change but by blocked up and badly maintained drains on public roads. There is a lot about this online if you want to look.

Oh jeezlouise I’m done now, someone tag me, I’m out.

Do your own consultations folks, send them over and I’ll read them when I can be arsed.

Why would they do that when they can just increase council tax on the few remaining taxpayers, without improving productivity.

😆

Get over @MagpiePi, my brother in law’s friend’s cousin has a building company and could do that work for half the price. Those councils just enjoy blowing all their budget up front on one project so they can sit about ‘W’FH for the rest of the year. I know this because my neighbour’s sister works for the council and I saw her going round there at 3 o’clock last Tuesday afternoon.

this 👆🏻

im boggled that ppl don’t understand that this is the case

Well go and be a councillor then and just do what the public tell you if your current lot are so rubbish.

The LA probably has to use approved contractors who work to industry standards, use materials of the correct specification, pay and train their staff properly, abide by health and safety laws, have a track record of completing similar schemes and have the right levels of insurance if things go wrong.

Same reason that damp patch in my house on the bottom of my wall every time it rains doesn't get fixed.

It costs money to assess the problem.

It costs money to fix the problem.

There is no money.

I may have spotted another possible explanation for why you apparently struggle to get timely responses.

Councils are like governments. They do the “here and now” but don’t think about the future. 🤷‍♀️

Yes, thanks, I know they are required to audit.

I just don't think people should believe what they are told by any authority/auditor/government/council/police force. Why would you?

Councils are funded by government grant. That amount is decreasing every year. There is barely enough for maintenance. Most services are being cut and local authorities are going bust. Of course they understand that investment is needed. But people don’t like paying taxes.

Perhaps it is what is happening in social housing. Board members and top managers being paid in the 100,000 to £250,000 (and sometimes beyond mark) and cutting any role where you actually 'do'! There is money and where the money is spent, there are budget cuts and spending on items that make no improvements but somehow tick a box or agenda. Not just an issue of less, but where money is being spent and how this spend is being checked.

I was a school governor a few years ago, a building project was needed at one of the schools. I told the LA that I was more than happy to get quote from local builders. They said that we (the school) couldn't get our own quotes. The quote they were given was horrendously high, but they were going with it. On the sly I got a local builder to quote, his quote was about 2/3 of the LA one.
Essentially I believe the LA staff either don't have the skills to negotiate or they are not allowed to. Which, over several schools, must be very draining on their funds.

You're wrong, its enshrined in law - https://www.local.gov.uk/our-support/guidance-and-resources/external-audit/statutory-arrangements-audit

I get people are angry - rightly- about Tory misrule but circulating misinterpretations doesnt help. Check and balances need to be strengthned, weakening them was a speciality of the last govt.

Yes!! Yes they do know!! Unfortunately they have have bugger all money, a frankly ridiculous array of statutory duties they have to carry out and legislation to comply with

I would love there to be a reality Tv show where the ppl who think they could do it all sooooo much better are put in charge of a council for a year

And sometimes we laugh. We do. I have a frequent flyer who conducts his own consultations when he thinks I’m wrong about something (yes me, personally) and includes things like ‘Mrs T at number 8 shut the door in my face using language unbecoming for a lady in a town such as this so that household has been excluded from benefitting from this report’ and ‘Mrs P at number 14 is very elderly and infirm finding it difficult to get to the door so I undertook the kindness of completing the questionnaire for her’. He’s good at graphs and pie charts tho, I’ll give him that, top Excel skillz.

See above. Projects at this scale usually determined by central/devolved government, come with outline design already in place. Consultation a farce that central government require the local authority to do. Alternatives supplied by respondents not permissible (see budget control, discretionary spend, regulation). Half finished, unlinked infrastructure can usually be aligned with change of minister. Project type aligned to current minister’s special interest, ring roads will be funded by the next ‘I love ring roads me’ minister appointed, if that’s what you want you’ll need to bide your time (see Johnson, ref. bridges for example).

Yes, our council love to laugh at us, too. I'm glad we are such a source of mirth for you.

I'm talking about simple yes-no questions, like "shall we build this massive £20m piece of infrastructure knowing similar structures have caused expensive issues and failed to solve the problem in every other place that has one or shall we not", "will you use this cycle lane" and "do you want more 20 mph roads". Large public majorities said a resounding no in each case, but each project was pushed through regardless.