Too be disgusted and scared by the proposed cuts by our local council for 2013/14?

[DowntonNappy]

Got a letter home last week from school saying that our local council intends to cut almost £30 million from its learning and leisure services by 2013/14, and also housing and social care.

The school have expressed their concern over this and want all local parents to go on the website, complete the survey and express their views. I'm doing it just now and am shocked by the questions. It's mainly disagree, agree, neutral answers. I'm paraphrasing, but here's some of the propsals:

Close down the social services office in X (town).

Cut janitorial positions, and instead provide one janitor to cover multiple schools.

Cut canteen staff, free fruit and bread, and increase school meal prices by 25p (excluding free school meals).

Withdraw funding for (local sheltered housing) and encourage elderly people to live independently within their own homes.

Withdraw individual additional support need staff and replace with a more 'generic' assistant.

Reduce cleaning staff in schools.

Reduce our discretionary and community care grants.

Cease free school swimming lessons; only charge those not in receipt of free school meals.

Remove lunchtime patrol staff (lollipop ladies).

Reduce funding to citizens advice bureaux.

Reduce funding to local police and fire safety community based initiatives.

Move waste collection from 2 weekly to three weekly.

Charge £20 for Blue Badges.

And THEN it asks at the end, would you be willing to pay more council tax to help X X Council with its services?

What. A. Joke.

you don't this is just party political?

our (Conservative)council used to send round leaflets whinging about the small central government grant, and how it meant they had to charge us so much council tax, and cut back on essential services

Now they don't.

I live in Wales where our council tax was re-banded so it was more in line with house prices meaning we went up a couple of bands,we also have no increase freeze so our council tax has risen each yr.
We have to pay £1 a week for ds to have a mid morning snack in school,we have fortnightly refuse collections that actually are very good,we have no lollipop lady at dinner times.
We have no free swimming lessons,I'm sorry op but its a case of suck it up,I would rather pay a little extra and protect services for vulnerable people.
Wouldn't you too?

I don't understand the lollipop thing

It's dreadful if he loses his job obviously but if there are children going home at lunch for food then there is someone to receive them at home ergo there is someone to walk up to the school and get them.

Surely you don't then need a lollipop person?

I agree with some of the proposals. Yes, why aren't the parents picking their kids up at lunchtime if they think they need help crossing the road?

I'm sure a janitor can cover more than one school so that makes sense to me.

We've never had free swimming lessons here. Kids only swim for 8 weeks a year at primary school so it wasn't the end of the world paying.

Maybe the cab could look at more efficient ways of working? More Internet chat and telephone appts?

£20 charge for blue badges? If its a one off admin charge then that's not too bad.

The other stuff I don't agree with, there shouldn't be cuts to learning assistants, elderly care services, etc. and only having your bins emptied every three weeks? I can only just manage with a fortnightly collection!

There's money.

Our council, for example, spends tens of thousands every year in gala dinners with free good and drink (and if they're lucky, harpists) for councillors. Councillors themselves also get paid a fair but - over £13k p.a. in my LA. why not ask what your councillors are sacrificing to the budget cuts, or that us bring spent on entertaining them? You can make a FOI request to your council and they are required to provide the information.

Just two points - and without commenting on the proposed cuts themselves; which anyone who has worked in local government would know are not the best ones they could manage.

Some of you have mentioned such items as 'paving of roads with golden bricks' and 'erecting statues' Remember that LAs have two funding streams - Capital and Revenue. Generally speaking, these 'vanity projects' are funded by Capital funds (or by central Government or other grants - but that's a whole different story) and not by Revenue. The Capital funds can't be spent on day to day expenditure and it's there (on the Revenue stream) that Councils have to make most cuts. Capital funding is also, generally, a 'use it or lose it' sort of money so tends to be spent in what some people might see as less than appropriate ways and often (loosely) towards the financial year end when it looks in danger.

Welsh. You would be staggered, I think, at the sheer cost to LAs of meeting FOI requests. I would say that this was money well spent to provide transparency - if indeed it did. It doesn't. I think you'll find that most FOI requests are set out so badly and answered (albeit with significant costs) so indifferently or cunningly that the responses might mean very little in practice.

I think that comment about capital and revenue funds and 'spend it or lose it' sums up the attitude in councils and the public sector.

The public sector are given money and their job is to spend all of it, regardless of whether it is worthwhile, or you won't get it next year.

If all the capital fund was unspent across the country, there would be more money for useful things and less cuts as some of these services would never have been offered in the first place.

And there's much truth in that.

I wouldn't say most of those are unexpected. Most aren't a massive issue and my council implemented them last year.
Some of these things should also be the responsibility of parents. Swimming, fruit etc. If school meal prices go up then parents have the choice of packed lunches.

EdgarAllanPond, I meant the decisions to cut are not party political - every council is having to cut. The press release spin is party political, as far as the local government act will allow. E.g.

OP's council:
withdraw funding from local sheltered housing

Conservative council:
Invest in helping more of our older people to live at home for longer

Labour council:
Close down several day schemes for older people

Conservative council:
Invest in a top-of-the-range central day facility for our older residents

They still have to save the money.

Welshmanaed, if your councillors still do that this year, I think they'll be the only ones in the country. And they deserve to lose their seats.

I challenge people to find new investment in 'vanity' public arts projects this year. People need to stop believing the hype and remembering boom years spending and take a look at their actual council accounts (which are published in great detail).

I challenge people to find new investment in 'vanity' public arts projects this year. People need to stop believing the hype and remembering boom years spending and take a look at their actual council accounts (which are published in great detail).

I am reminded of a particular scene from the first episode of 'Yes Minister' (still disturbingly topical) in which Jim Hacker is meeting Sir Humphrey in his new capacity. It includes....

JH - 'Well Opposition's about asking awkward questions'

SH - 'Yes and government is about not answering them.'

JH - 'But you answered all my questions, didn't you'

SH - 'I'm glad you thought so, Minister'.

I'm afraid, Mainlymainie that if you think your local council's 'detailed actual accounts' are a true and fair view of reality, you should find a decent accountant of your acquaintance, show them to them, and stand back to avoid the sprays of laughter.

i had friends working in local government who were shocked at the senseless waste during the previous government. and that in liberal/ conservative marginal seat during the previous government (no doubt also complaining about the small size of its government grant!). she had asked to take on another body to save money for an additional £20k salary to save £200k in outsourcing costs - they said no. that was along time ago now though...

the obvious thing about the list in the OP is that all these things are readily comprehensible to the public. how much of council spending falls in this bracket?
if the council said instead 'we will have to spend less on consultation' i think most people will shrug and go 'oh well then'. less on communication - also a shrug. But they've gone for things people understand.

the three-weekly bin collection is something they'd never go for as then the opposition in the area would just have to promise 2* weekly to get voted in! bin collection is a serious local issue. If they now don't cut that, they come out looking better though...

you can bet, had Labour got in and enacted its 18 billion cuts plan, the council wouldn't have put out this leaflet, but got on with quietly cutting things the public doesn't understand or know about, which is undoubtedly what our (Conservative) local council will be doing now.

Oh quelle surprise.
Cuts falling disproportionately on people with disabilities and the elderly.

cozietosie, all councils have to publish all spending over £500 in a raw format. Actual spending data, not accounts. V easy to look at and challenge, but it hasn't led to the expected increase in FOI requests, because mostly people can't be bothered to look. Much easier to just throw accusations.

Chandon, council staff do not wrok 10-4! THey work flexitime with these as the core hours. THis means that you are told only to ring during those hours as these are the times they can guarantee the person you want to speak to will be there. THe staff wirk the equicvalent of around 7 and a half hours a day, but they can divide it as they like.

cardibach, yes, to suit THEIR needs, not the public's.

Nice for them. Still not impressed.

I didn't even know school children got free bread! They don't in my school, but they do get fruit and milk. Tbh, I think those things should be paid for by parents, as should swimming lessons. I can't see much need for lollipop people either. They are a good thing to have, and I was sorry when ours left and didn't get replaced, but it's up to parents to make sure their children get to school safely, not the council.

I also don't have a problem with a £20 charge for a blue badge.

The rest of the suggested cuts are shit though.

The three weekly collection for residual waste mentioned by the OP is not a surprise. Insiders in the waste management industry have been openly discussing the practicalities of FOUR weekly collection frequency for residual waste for some time, including senior figures in LARAC - the Local Authorities Recycling Advisory Committee - basically the people who design and manage your refuse systems. Most councils now offer regular and frequent collections of dry recycling and food waste, so see the residual collection as something which can be easily reduced especially in those areas where fortnightly collection is already being used. See here for an example of discussion of the issues in the industry.

I agree some of those are concerning, but others I wouldn't be surprised by. My dds' school has no lollipop people,despite being on quite a busy road, school dinners are £2.30 and AFAIK school swimming lessons are charged for. I didn't realise that there were schools that had lollipop people at lunchtime.

We've never had free fruit or bread. Dd1 has to bring in a healthy snack for break time, and always has and we have to pay £2 a week for dd2's snack.

I thought all children in reception or KS1 got free fruit and milk.

Chandon arguably flexible working is one of the ways local authorities keep staff costs down. I took a significant pay cut to move into local government and one of the trade offs is greater flexibility which suits my family. If you took away that flexibility on the basis that as a public servant I should accomodate the public's needs and there should be no give and take, I would start looking at the job pages. I'm sorry if you don't think that's very public spirited of me - but the fact is in the same role in the private sector I would earn more, get all my training paid for, have wider career prospects and enjoy perks like staff parties and corporate hospitality.

'I thought all children in reception or KS1 got free fruit and milk.'

Nope.