Kurkigarth Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 I started reading this subject with interest and I think it is fair to say that all council departments are going to have to tighten their belts. Losing free instrumental tuition should be the least of any parents worry at the moment - other councils in Scotland are piloting schemes where teachers are being taken out of the classroom for 2.5 hours every week (classes are being taken by classroom assistants to save money) and one council is discussing the possibility of going to a 4 day school week instead of of a 5 day week (I'm not sure if that one will actually happen). Education will suffer - and although I'm sure it is a bloated budget, it is an important one. We all have to make cuts but we need to be sensible about it - we can indeed all buy our own black bags etc. The council is not around to provide jobs but there is a real danger that in Shetland there will be no jobs for young people to return to that have left to study to become a nurse, teacher, doctor etc. We will end up with an aging population with no young folk here and working to pay for their social care! We have to take care of the young - they will have to take care of us! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crofter-amy Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Cuts have to be made. Objecting to every cut wont help though. If public toilets are to be closed perhaps a close, empathic, community could consider being less possesive of their own toilet. If someone came to my door bursting for the toilet I would have a hard time justifying turning them away and I hope that if I find myself caught short I could ask to use any toilet without fear of being turned away. And if you are turned away I remember hearing you have the right to relieve yourself in their garden by some old bylaw Hard times coming our way and better to just deal with it than whine and moan about every little thing....Focus on the bigger picture folks Try thinking outside the box and come up with some helpful money saving ideas One thing I would add though is that the public toilets in town should stay open untill well after the last pub shuts it's doors and pubs need to stop serving drunk people. That might be a rant for another thread.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PJ of Hildisvik Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 For the cost of the new toilets in toon, they should be open 24/7. As i have said before, the council should operate out of one municipal building, selling off the rest or turning them into flats and renting them out. Surely putting 500.000 quid towards this would be wiser than more "studies" into tunnels. But this is the SIC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trowie246 Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 I heard that the SIC employ someone to inspect all the skips throughout Shetland incase anyone dumps any hazardous waste or anything dangerous to the general public. Do we really need this? It didn't save my daughter and her friend from taking home a real gun that they found in the skip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KTL Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 These are cuts we are talking about, not savings. Savings is where you spend less on one thing in order to spend a little more on something else. Lets call them cuts and be honest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulb Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 I heard that the SIC employ someone to inspect all the skips throughout Shetland incase anyone dumps any hazardous waste or anything dangerous to the general public. Do we really need this? It didn't save my daughter and her friend from taking home a real gun that they found in the skip.someone must go through it we had a letter for dumping a bag of rubbish in it. when we first got up here we thought it was funny the things not allowed dead sheep were a surprise. there rules on asbestos are slack. when south we had to doulbe bag the stuff and place in a special skip. it seems to just go in the land fill up here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 Staff numbers at the SIC are completely ridiculous we are employing more than a thousand folk (most of them managers) more than any comparable island group 25% of staff at the SIC could be cut without harming services just get those that are left to actually work for their wages for a change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulb Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 what impact would that do to the economy. if the council employs a large chunk of the workers on shetland; then any big cuts will have big effects. just think of the lerwick shops if they lost 10-20% of there income. lets hope we don't go down the road of mass job cuts. after all they would need to employ a manager to deal with the problems. they could not get rid of a couple of posts last year without a complete messup.the coucil is only facing 2.5% cuts not the 20 plus south. so if they can't find that think how bad its going to get south. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylad Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 I have a skip that blows its rubbish onto my land, most of it cant be helped, it is not funny though to see a lamb nibbling on a used sanitary towel. If people used the skips as they should be used then an insector should not be needed, I think therefore they are needed. People do go through skips looking for letters though as they bring them to mine tell taleing hoping I will report the offenders as they want the skip removing completely, I throw them in the bin. I like the skip so handy to me! I like a good skip search even though that is against the law Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 paulb, so you would pay folks just to do nothing rather than face up to facts that this level of staffing is unsustainable, Imagine the resentment that will build up when folks in the private sector are losing their jobs yet are still paying for a council manager who spends as much time at home than they do.To top this off why oh why are we handing out grants to "successful" businesses to expand or build bigger workshops etc. surely if they are "successful" then they would be able to finance their own expansion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulb Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 oh i agree with what your saying its just the impact on a small community if you did cut 1/4 of the jobs. yes i don't see why they need to give grants to thriving companies. loans yes but grants no.but like everywhere else it won't be managers that get the sack it will be the staff that do the jobs that go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mclaffalot Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 Yeah its always the working end that they propose cuts at , and leave the ones with a big leather chair shaped to an equally fat ass that does....well nothing really alone. About time that this council and indeed the goverment realise that its the bottom that supports the top , and not the other way round. I see in southern Ireland the gov ministers have all taken pay big cuts , not freezes , cuts. I dont see our intrepid servants doing the same , maybe if they did they would be help in a bit more esteem rather than the contempt they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shetlander Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 The council is there to provide services, not jobs and if the same level of service (or a level of service more in line with what other local authorities provide) can be delivered by employing fewer staff then so be it. Keeping an eye on the councils myjobscotland pages as I occasionally do, it isn't uncommon for there to be up to 25 vacancies at any one time, so if that's an indicator of turnover it shouldn't be too difficult to reduce numbers without the need for compulsory redundancies. I've heard it said that a lot of traditional employers (ironically in areas that the council are encouraging expansion in) are struggling to get and retain staff lured by (relatively) secure and well paid council jobs. I also mind seeing a report commissioned by the council a few years back that found that the high numbers employed by the public sector was a contributory factor to the relative lack of entrepreneurialism and low levels of new private sector business creation in Shetland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shetlandpeat Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 Your local council should have the best interests of its area at heart. Why has it just become about cash? Are their as many jobs in Shetland to cover all the job losses? Are their enough to employ all? Probably not, we have been constantly told that the family group is the keystone to a good society, yet folk will have to break up their families in order to satisfy the want of a few. Then, the local council is duty bound to look after the welfare of its community, or fear loosing it. If this means providing opportunities, training schemes and the such, it is right. But to turn it in to something without feeling will inhibit, harm and neglect the community it stands for. And the community will suffer as a result.If there is low employment then the people without work have to be catered for, of they will be unable to join the work force because they have not been allowed to keep abreast of the flow of things. It is OK to shout when you have a job, how about thinking what you would really be able to contribute if you did loose yours, remember, there are many others like you at the same time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulb Posted February 10, 2011 Report Share Posted February 10, 2011 There is also a one-off £841,000 contribution to this summer’s Tall Ships event. cut the study for the tunnel and hey you have saved 1.25 million.but no stick the bus fares up and the ferry fares. hire other councils to run housing an benifits and off load the management its been done for years in england. they have a town hall maybe move some offices back into it and sell off some of the offices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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