Don’t councils understand that prevention is cheaper than fixing

[Cornercandy]

Councils are struggling with money for the past few years. So why do they cut back things like cleaning drains which are clogged up with dead leaves, sediment and rubbish? When the cost of getting road fixed, planning diversions, hiring of temp traffic lights etc is more money?

Where I live there are two roads which are flooded and closed - never have been before. Yet drove past these roads a few days back and they were absolutely clogged up.

I know where I live there have been two Amber warnings for rain this week. If drains were cleared, the roads wouldn’t be flooded enough to close entirely.

this 👆🏻

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

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.

😆

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

Only if he were being reckless.

Nope. Climate change means more rain, unless drains are upgraded even clear drains can't cope.

Water should be trapped upstream, on hills. Presently there aren't enough trees and it runs off rapidly.

It's been that way forever.

When I was on a student union committee, at uni, if the budget wasn't spent at the end of the year, it was reduced next year.

Accountancy trumps utility - it's a civil service commandment.

Procurement within local authorities, with public money on infrastructure like schools isn't as simple as getting a local bloody builder to quote. There are all sorts of strategies, they will have a social value charter, the contractor will need the right levels of insurance, to comply with risk management, etc etc etc.

Getting local builders in might seem clever but is not the win you might think it is when you scale up to the millions and millions spent by councils across the country

How would we know if the drains are never cleared? Same as how do we know dredging rivers "won't make a difference" unless we actually do it? (It's been done in my area on one small section and it made a difference)

Surely you tell them they need the right kind of insurance? I mean that kind of information shouldn't be withheld? It makes far more sense to buy local if you can I remember the council of the town that invented carpet buying carpets for their offices from POLAND instead of down the road they were very much delayed and people took the piss they weren't even any cheaper than the local ones sales executive said we could have done them a deal had this been about cost (they also fitted an expensive eco heating system that didn't work properly) this was a very much touted "eco building" and no-one considered that the air miles might be an issue from an eco point of view

No thoughts given

Dredging rivers is bad for wildlife. Council have put in a lot of upstream interventions on the hills near here.
Gravel and stone gardens,fake grass should be banned to reduce flooding and save council tax hikes

It’s not withheld. They just don’t have that level of insurance. And if they do they’re probably not going to do the great deal on the project and still make the margins they want

its not withheld. The point is it might not be cost effective for Mr Local to have the necessary level of cover. But Mr National will already hold it as will deal with more of the bigger projects already. Economy by scale..,

I remain genuinely boggled that ppl have so little understand of local authority procurement, the processes suppliers have to go through and the standards companies are required to meet not to mention the sheer volume of things local authorities buy or commission from social care provision to bus services to road repairs to house building to stationery. It is literally millions and millions of pounds

its all publicly available on their websites

Quite. Not to mention the level of outrage when local authorities start haemorrhaging millions of £s when the new “better to use my mate who does a great deal” procurement arrangements suddenly start to look a bit flaky and unresilient on a scale never seen before

Well there is nothing stopping you from working for a council if you think that you could do better. It is very easy to criticise other people.

Where I am there is a bridge that had a small landslip over 18 months ago, temporary traffic lights have now been there for 18months, question how much that is costing per week

I live in a HA property and when I moved in the oil boiler was already ancient. I think I called them out three or four times each winter where it would stop working. They added new parts each time until it was almost a jumbled mess.

They replaced it about 6 years ago, I'd been here around 14 years by then! I haven't had to call them out since as it works brilliantly and my oil consumption has massively reduced as it is more efficient.