Council budget cuts

[Ghostrider]

 

4000 council staff for a population of 23000 what a bloody joke,

 

 

And therein I believe lies the problem.

Reduce the well paid council jobs and ultimately the Shetland population will reduce.

The council I'm sure are well aware of this and I believe it's one of the big drivers for the windfarm - this would then allow the council to carry on as normal and maintain the current population levels.

 

I've never understood the almost blinkered obsession with the headcount of local residents within certain council factions, particularly when it involves little other than a thinly disguised Ponzi scheme to create and maintain it. Paying people to do un-necessary tasks in public service jobs creates a fickle and unstable portion in the local economy.

 

Public service jobs are robbing Peter to pay Paul at the best of times, everyone would be better off, and the local economy all the better off for it, if instead of being forced to pay X% of their income on renumerating people in un-necessary job titles doing un-necessary tasks, folk kept that money in their pockets to spend on whatever the chose, where and when they wished.

[shetlander]

My suggestions, for what they are worth:

 

- Close schools and cut both school and central staff as proposed in the Blueprint for Education.

- Cut the frequency of inter island ferry services at less busy times in the middle of weekdays, late at night and early on weekend mornings.

- Run the Skerries ferry to Vidlin rather than to Vidlin and Lerwick and look at whether a single crew can provide the Papa Stour and Foula services.

- Introduce social care charges to those who can afford them.

- Up usage charges in line with other local authorities for sports facilities, libraries, the hire of council properties and the like.

- More sharing of council staff and resources across departments/locations - centralising catering for schools/social care/leisure/arts facilities or providing sheltered housing warden services from care centres for example.

- Cut opening hours of leisure centres and swimming pools.

- Look at whether more use can be made of volunteers - maintenance of gardens of elderly council tenants and delivery of meals on wheels for example.

- Ask whether staff (at all levels) really need to be replaced when vacancies arise or whether the same service can be provided by adopting new systems and working practices.

- Stop overtime working other than in emergency situations or where there is an essential service need.

- Put an end to the creation of any new posts without full council approval and unless a robust business case is made.

 

There are plenty of possibilities but they all depend on councillors making bold decisions, managers and staff adopting a more flexible and visionary attitude to how services are delivered and the community at large accepting that cuts have to be made. And there is where the challenge lies.

[Guest Anonymous]

wan more rant afore I go £3million to fix up da pier at waas yet a deep water berth at scalloway is on hold due to lack of funds, how much return are we going to get from a new pier at waas and how much from a deep water berth at scalloway, its a no brainer yet them that makes the decisions have no brains.

 

 

It's a shame there isn't some big infrastructure project we could invest in,

 

 

the folk making the decisions about your beloved windfarm AT are the same ones making decisions about the waas scalloway piers. what hope do we have of it ever being anything but a big white elephant.

[Ghostrider]

Okay, I'll put the fox in the henhouse.

 

A "one-stop" council headquarters. Yes, it'll cost, but I believe in the long run in would be value for money, for everybody.

 

Its often been spoken about, but only in the dreams of a few glassy eyed councillors of the time. Yes, it would cost upfront, but right now the council occupies numerous building all around town, most of them old, with the higher maintenance/repair bills, heating costs etc that accompanies them, most are difficult to access by both staff and public, and most by virtue of location and design would command a good selling price on the open market.

 

How many man hours are wasted and how much transport costs likewise by folk having to go back and forth between St Olaf Street, Quendale House, Hayfield and god knows where else.

 

Several provisios though i) Definitely NOT the grandiose "Rolls Royce" gold plated icon some in the Town Hall would make it given half a chance, just a basic functional office block. If Charlotte House is good enough for Government employees, the equivalent is good enough for council employees. ii) NO Council Chamber, design the building so that one can be added as an extension at later date, but as its unlikely the Town Hall would be used for anything else if council meetings weren't held there, shifting them isn't justified. In any case the way they've been for the last decade they need to prove that the council services operate because of them, and not despite them, before it could be justified to buy a tent for them to meet in. The same thing goes for the CE.

 

As for Lystina House, get it on the market tomorrow, if Sandy and whoever else need their own offices, let them buy a portakabin themselves and bung it round the back of the Town Hall, it would be too good for them.

[joenorth]

Yes it's an ageing population, but it's also a population that generally has significantly more savings than the previous generations. It's about time folk started to plan about how to fund their own care to take some pressure off the rapidly increasing burden of the islands social care.

 

This happens already - if you have enough savings you'll pay for your social care. If you don't have the requisite amount of money you'll pay nothing. The tariffs are on the SIC website. However, whether you're paying or not, the care home places have to exist, and not enough of them exist in Shetland to meet the need - witness the recent scramble to turn part of the old Montfield Hospital into an SIC care centre. The private sector provides a huge proportion of these services on the UK mainland. There are no private care homes in Shetland (unless you count Crossreach's Scalloway facility, which I believe is part administered by the SIC nowadays too). Be aware that most private care homes do not provide anything like the level of service our council run homes do- these organisations exist to make a profit.

 

I think considering social care for our older family members as a 'burden' is unfortunate and reflective of a social attitude that labels older people as 'of no further use'. We have strange priorities in Shetland. We continue to build gold-standard community facilities and provide blue-riband educational services while scrabbling for the resources to ensure our older relatives have a decent quality of life.

 

Many of us will be there one day. I want the care to be good!

 

Why are we paying good money to keep folk in a care home when they have no idea if its new year or new york?

If I end up doolally then I would expect my family doctor to do the kindest thing and leave a little air in the syringe when administering medication, in fact it should be mandatory.

 

I think you're 'doolally' already. I'm sure many forum members would contribute towards the cost of a ticket to Switzerland for you. Why wait till you need social care? Go on, lead by example and save the SIC some money...

[EM]

there are a lot of people alive now but away with the fairies

mmm not very pc. im not sure my father in law would have liked being called it.

Interesting. I would have thought away with the fairies to be one of the kinder terms to use. What would you suggest as being most appropriate? Surely the formal terms demented and senile are more loaded?

[Infiltrator]

 

This happens already - if you have enough savings you'll pay for your social care. If you don't have the requisite amount of money you'll pay nothing.

 

No it doesn't happen already - you'll notice I said people should start to plan for their own social care. This is the bit that's missing, many people still look for a way around having to fund their own care because they think it should be funded by the council/government.

Surely it should be a bit like planning for your pension years, if you can afford it, and you'd like to be comfortable during your pension years, you take out a private pension earlier in your life.

[Guest Raven007]

I believe there is a large number of council tenants that refuse to pay thier rent and council tax, apparently someone commited harry carry a lot of years ago after being chased for rent , so they changed thier policies on people who dont pay to prevent it happening again , but i think thier wages should be arrested and they should be forced to pay like everyone else , also if they do ever build a new high school , they should put all the office departments up at the anderson high , and sell all the old buildings for some much needed housing !

 

If anyone would like to see where the some of the public moneys gone then take a good look to your left as you go over the trondra bridge from Scalloway , o and dont forget to checkout the brand new fisher motor sail sitting in the east voe marina , wonderful isnt it !

 

(*** Mod - merged ***)

[Para Handy]

Maybe the Shetland Council will try this.

 

A council in Gloucestershire has given staff chocolates as a reward for turning their computer monitors off

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-10710458

[Twerto]

Expenses for when you head south on buisiness could be reduced severely. Who on earth needs £110 a night for a hotel? ( £140 if I remember right a night for London )

[Guest Anonymous]

last year members of the sic and the oic were attending meeting in Aberdeen sic arrived the night before and stayed at a premium hotel and returned to shetland the day after the meeting. oic arrived on the first flight the morning of the meeting and returned on the last flight in the evening of the meeting.

2 of our representatives were so hung over they slept through most of the meeting.

with folks like that on the payroll no bloody wonder we are screwed.

[Guest Anonymous]

I think you're 'doolally' already. I'm sure many forum members would contribute towards the cost of a ticket to Switzerland for you. Why wait till you need social care? Go on, lead by example and save the SIC some money...

 

As i have already stated if my mind is gone I would want to be put out of my misery. If my mind is intact but the body is screwed and I am a burden I will do myself in.

 

why waste money on a ticket to switzerland we have plenty of high banks up here maybe Joe would like to meet me at the top of one to discuss his point of view.

[joenorth]

Nae budder Bob. We'll baith spang, will we? I promise I'll jump right efter dee...

[joenorth]

 

No it doesn't happen already - you'll notice I said people should start to plan for their own social care. This is the bit that's missing, many people still look for a way around having to fund their own care because they think it should be funded by the council/government.

Surely it should be a bit like planning for your pension years, if you can afford it, and you'd like to be comfortable during your pension years, you take out a private pension earlier in your life.

 

Sorry - missed your point the first time. Certainly a good idea. People will always find the idea of paying for long-term care uncomfortable, though, as boundaries between 'social' and 'health' care remain blurred. To complicate things, in Scotland government social care is free. What you pay for in care centres are termed 'hotel' costs, i.e. your room and food.

If you're 'lucky' enough to have 'complex medical needs', you'll get to stay in an NHS hospital and pay nothing (although your surroundings might leave a bit to be desired).

[shetlander]

Was looking at the OIC website the other day and came across this. Despite the scepticism in some of the blog posts, seems to me like a genuine attempt to try to engage the public on what they think should be cut in the inevitable hard times ahead:

 

http://www.orkney.gov.uk/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=15647&tt=orkneyv2

 

What probably strikes me most about this is how comparitively far behind the SIC is in terms of the way it presents itself to and seeks the views of the public on all council related matters.