Council budget cuts

[Mutton]

You would hope what they are doing at the OIC will soon happen at the SIC.

 

In terms of budget cutting measures, make the font a lot smaller on SIC letters/reports etc. The amount you can save on paper and ink is considerable!

[moorit]

no need!

 

http://www.shetlandtimes.co.uk/2010/12/09/need-for-council-savings-vanish-as-scale-of-underspending-becomes-clear

 

anybody else think the Shetland Times seems almost disapointed to report this~?

[mogling]

No Sheltered Housing Wardens at xmas again.

 

We got a letter today:

 

"At a meeting of the SIC's Services Committee on 25th Nov, Councillors decided that Housing Support Workers {Sheltered Housing Wardens}should participate in SIC Christmas & New Year holiday shutdown arrangements. All Council staff are required to participate..."

 

{They have to use up annual leave}

 

The last visit will be 24th Dec, and no Warden popping in to check folks are okay / brightening up their day with a friendly face until the 5th january.

 

That's fine for folk who have family and/or friends nearby / on the island, but for those who have nobody- if they are housebound, don't use the meals on wheels service or get a Home help- they might not be able to interact with another living being for 11 days in a row

 

We have had folk in our scheme like that- no relatives or friends up here. Christmas is the worst time of the year for people on their own feeling depressed & lonely.

 

In the greater scheme of things- how much will they save, and is it fair?

[shetlandpeat]

The upseting thing as well is that we are only being told that these cuts are the only way.

And as usual, those who cannot defend themselves as well as they may have been will be hit.

My Dad pays for his care and will probably do so for the rest of his life, yet it seems that after paying taxes many times over and working hard to save for his future it will be increased or service lessened or both.

Tha cost of fuel will increase this winter as the oil and gas companies need to make more profits while their employees go on company benders in Norway.

There seems to be an abuse everywhere we look, yet for years no one had addressed it. And still will not.

[snow]

Well I have found out where some of my money will go...

I asked that a better heater be put in my disabled sons bedroom and was told by council that I have to pay for that even though I am a pensioner.

for this - the heater and installation costs amount to £736.71.

 

The heater actually costs £194 inc vat and delivery.....Come on..

 

Where exactly do they get the cost of installing at nearly £500. It is only a small heater the same as goes in the bathroom....

 

Would actually like to see a breakdown of how these prices were put together...

 

Needless to say I wont be taking the SIC up on their quote.

[paulb]

have you tried your son social worker. if he needs extra heat it should be covered by them. its a heck of a lot cheaper to fund a heater than social care.

[NewMagnie]

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.

 

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.

 

Centralise, centralise, centralise - good and well up to a point, but will create a tendancy to make the SIC even more toon-centric than it already is. Great news for Lerwick, poor deal for everybody else.

 

I realise you're talking about toon based offices and general efficiencies therein, but I'm still suspicious of the trend.

 

Sell Lystina? Maybe, it is underutilised up to a point, but probably better to sell Quendale House - who in their right mind would want to live next to the Town Hall? Better to move the Council offices from round the back of the Garrison into Lystina and dispose of that office.

 

Some rationalisation of town offices isn't a bad idea and building something new that's more efficient in terms of space, heating/cooling etc has merit - but its a case of swings and roundabouts and at the end of the day you're going to need a roughly equivalent number of desks. I'd be surprised if you saved much in the short run or if that figure was meaningful in the long run.

 

At the end of the day its a choice between spending on services to make life worth living in Shetland. Sure we can shut schools and leisure centres but that's going to contribute to the movement of people out of rural areas and ultimately out of Shetland itself. We can save a heap of money, but if there's noone left to spend it on, what's the point?

[north]

Move everything to the North Ness.

 

Town Hall, SIC HQ, all SIC employees, all schools for all ages, library, museum, mareel, and hold UHA there as well.

 

Could also be a hub for tunnels to each of the outer isles, a ferry terminal, airport and construction camp for Sullom. It would also be a great location to put at least 400 massive wind turbines, that would rotate at hypersonic speed with all that hot air pouring out of the complex!

 

Hmmm, maybe I should run for the council with ideas like this?

[Graeme_Storey]

Move everything to the North Ness.

 

........

 

Hmmm, maybe I should run for the council with ideas like this?

With ideas like that you may find you have quite a large following!!

[Styumpie]

Move everything to the North Ness.

 

Town Hall, SIC HQ, all SIC employees, all schools for all ages, library, museum, mareel, and hold UHA there as well.

 

Could also be a hub for tunnels to each of the outer isles, a ferry terminal, airport and construction camp for Sullom. It would also be a great location to put at least 400 massive wind turbines, that would rotate at hypersonic speed with all that hot air pouring out of the complex!

 

Hmmm, maybe I should run for the council with ideas like this?

 

This has some serious potential

[Gorgonzola Butt-cheese]

From open europe .org.uk

 

National Audit Office says UK owes EU £1bn in fines;

 

Local councils may become liable for a further £1bn

 

The National Audit Office has set aside around £601m to pay future EU fines, in addition to £398 million of fines already paid, over the mismanagement of EU funds spent in the UK. Most of the fines relate to EU farm subsidy payments, but regional development funds also attracted “correctionsâ€. Open Europe Director Mats Persson is quoted in the Telegraph saying, “Undoubtedly, the UK needs to tighten its checks on EU spending, but it’s also true that this money would be much easier to control if it wasn’t channelled via Brussels in the first place. The EU budget is hugely complex and irrational and therefore more prone to mismanagement than national spending programmes.â€

 

More budget cuts just over the horizon.......

[Gorgonzola Butt-cheese]

http://www.thetrumpet.com/?q=7889.6489.0.0

 

New legislation signed by Britain’s current coalition government will lead to the EU completely bypassing the British Parliament to directly fine municipal councils billions of pounds if, and almost certainly when, targets on air quality and recycling rates are not met. The standards governing these targets are set, imposed and enforced by Brussels, not by any elected British democratic authority.

 

With the current wave of budget cuts, councils will have to either raise council taxes or cut more services to meet these onerous charges.

 

The hypocritical EU’s budget is so riddled with fraud and missing billions of euros its own European Court of Auditors revealed in November that in 10 years just 1 percent of fraudulent subsidies have been recovered.

[ll]

With Lerwick, Sullom Voe (now together with Scalloway) all having to provide pilotage services, it would be a sensible idea to provide these services from a pool of local pilots going to where they were needed instead of every port needing to have a full compliment of pilots.

 

It would be a good starting point for the LPA and SIC to bury the hatchet, but this may only be able to take place in a post-Cluness SIC.

 

Sullom Voe port control radio could be combined with Shetland Coastguard at Lerwick and monitored via their Collafirth Hill relay station in a bid to keep the local Coastguard Station open and share operating costs.

 

The radar coverage part of Sullom Voe Port Control can surely be adequately monitored by the 10 radars on the four tugs and one pilotage vessel escorting each and every tanker coming into Sullom Voe.

[enkelt skapninger]

http://www.shetland-news.co.uk/2011/February/news/SIC%20councillors%20sharpen%20the%20axe.htm

 

I know that belts have got to be tightened, but it is sad to read of the cuts agreed.

 

One of those cuts really worries me:

 

• Cutting back on winter road gritting and general road maintenance

 

Gritting is one thing that we really can't safely cut! Anyone who works in Lerwick but lives out of town is going to be in trouble. Things will grind to a halt for far longer if we have a winter similar to this one in future, and there will be more accidents. It'll cost the local economy more than it'll save.

 

We are 60 degrees North. We have proper weather.

 

 

(PS: I meant to post this in Shetland news. If a friendly mod could move it I'd be grateful!)

 

(***Mod Edit - Merged with existing SIC cuts thread***)

[Spinner72]

It is worth bearing in mind the difference in service between Shetland and most of the UK.

 

I spent the recent cold snap in the Westren Isles, where only main roads and some bus routes are salted, and no pavement service at all.

 

In most of the country when any amount of snow/ice comes people just accept the roads are impassble and thats that, soon we may be the same.

 

I'm more concerned about the reduction in maintenance - you only have to look at other authorities to see how that can be a false economy. Like almost anything, it is generally cheaper in the long run to invest in ongoing maintenance than let things fall to bits and replace them..