Council budget cuts

[Gorgonzola Butt-cheese]

Fair point Carlos but large reductions in street lighting would bring savings in the short term if you started with the basic technology of just switching lights off after 1.00 am sunday to thursday . The technology to save even more can be brought into play through a planned maintenance and refurbishment scheme , funding for which should be sourced from national government by using the green agenda card .

I was also slightly over the top demanding the eviction of all Foula residents , but the service of this small outpost is a drain that brings no benefit back to the economy .

I recall years ago after the vast sums of money that were lost in the Foula ferry fiasco ( now the N.A.F.C'S training and research vessel).

That it would have been cheaper to give every foula resident £400,000 each and to close the place down , that was maybe 15 year ago , I wonder what that figure would be now .

One thing for sure , with all the cost saving ideas suggested here , many of which could be put in place almost immediately , it is even more apparent we have the wrong people in the Town Hall .

[Frankie]

I was on the phone and mentioned this thread and they reckoned there was space at Gremista.

 

I can assure you that every week day during work hours the car parks at the Gremista depot are more or less full of the vehicles belonging to workers who do not take Council vehicles home. There may be 3 or 4 spaces available at any one time.

 

The rest of what you say may or may not be correct, I don't know for sure so won't comment.

[Ghostrider]

Tradesmen's vans are a difficult one, as while there is no need for many to be taken home which are, there are also a number of tradesmen who are "on call" around the clock at any one given time to deal with emergencies.

 

Knowing the council there's a good chance before they got rosters organised, drawn up and maintained allocating vans to the guys who were on call and do need them, much of what would be saved in running costs would be spent again in man hours on the paperwork. Certainly much could be done to achieve efficiency savings, but without streamlining the red tape laden paper trail manner in which anything gets done at all, many good ideas would only achieve mediocre results in comparison to what they potentially could in a better organised bottomline orientated enviornment.

[JohanofNess]

Either way, I disagree with JON - whilst it may not work in Aberdeen, it tends to work for Councils up and down the UK where vehicles are not brought home.

 

Aberdeen City has a very small geographical area to cover so keeping the vehicles in one of the 6 depots they have makes sense, the majority of staff live near the depots. My company covers Aberdeen, Inverness and down to Glasgow it makes zero sense for us to make staff travel to central depots. The added advantage of having staff use vehicles to collect the men in their squad means a job is started quicker, absenteeism is reduced and it's easier to plan work based on where men live and their availability.

 

 

JONess argues about one job being done near where the van was, what about the other 99%?

 

So why should Council tradesmen have the vehicles overnight at their homes? Blimey, you could argue that all nurses second ambulances to drive them to work (wouldn't work as we don't exactly have a plethora of ambulances eh?), Fireman take the fire engines home, the police, etc. Other people have to make their way to work under their own fuel - crumbs, remember the Florence Grains' taxi costs?

 

At the end of the day, savings have to be made.

 

99% aye right

 

You're comparing an apple with a kumquat a nurse, ambulance driver, fireman, policeman have one thing in common they all work in the majority of cases the same building every day whereas roads workers, builders, sparkies etc can be working on different sites each day of the week but by your reasoning they all have to travel to get a vehicle to go to a job they might be passing to get a work vehicle.

 

I can understand why folk have a gripe that someone gets a vehicle to get to and from their work but there are advantages to it and yes staff can be taxed for the personal use of those vehicles, whether the council does impose the tax on its staff I'm not sure but they could if the electorate got sufficiently unhappy about it, I'm sure folk will be on to the council about it. Do all the vans need to be taken home, probably not but its certainly advantageous that some are.

[unlinkedstudent]

^^Some fair points JONess to which I will quite happily hold my hands up - yep, certain professions do work in the same place whereas tradesmen don't; but I doubt if all Council vans need to be taken home at night.

 

However, re the tax on personal use of vehicles - if I'm reading your thread correctly and that this tax is meant to go to the Inland Revenue coffers, then blow the electorate - surely the Council have a legal obligation to ensure that the tax is paid? Granted, it may be that it is the individual's responsibility to advise the Inland Revenue but in many large organisations, they advise HMRC of such a perk.

[daveh]

It would certainly seem that there is a taxation implication for regular private usage of a van provided by an employer. It would be the council's responsibility to notify the HMRC that there is such usage and the council would be, perhaps, leaving themselves vulnerable to have to pay the tax not being paid by the employees.

 

This HMRC link provides some details:

 

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vans/vans-info.pdf

[MuckleJoannie]

its depends what department it is with the works trucks etc.

they take them homempick up the guys and ehad straight to their location for starting work VERY early. My opinion that is not a waste. They get there to start early so that the job is done.

 

And what is stopping them from driving to work early in their own vehicles or getting public transport? Is it essential that they start before 8.00am/9.00am? If they are doing noisy work, then legally speaking, they couldn't start hammering away before a certain time anyway. Are you suggesting that if they didn't take the vans home with them that they would never do a productive 7 or 7.5 hr day?

 

A lot of council manual workers start at 7.30 am, before the buses are running and they work at locations all over Shetland. I seem to mind that at one time there was a policy for workers to come into their base, eg Lerwick, before going out to their job for the day, but it was realised that it was more efficient for them to go straight to wherever they were actually working.

[piggywiggie]

finally people are starting to talk sense.... alot o the time one man has a van full o its workers, one van one job basically. unless it requires more than the van can hold

[snow]

If most of these van drivers dont have their own transport maybe itms time that the bus servicer were updated..I am sure it will save thousands in the long run..

 

BTW just how much is the fuel bill for all these van drivers that take their vans home and does the council pay the fuel costs for the time they officially " Clock Off"?

 

Also why is it that some staff prefer to work week ends when the costs would be less if the work was carried out in normal working hours ( I am not referring to Emergencies) just run of the mill work...

 

Hourly rates for example ! man 1 van 10 min job running sealant round window istead of fixing leak Time 10 mins cost £ 147...when I questioned this I was told that the charge is started in Lerwick. Now does that make sense?

[Styumpie]

Using council vehicles more efficiently, and switching off a few street lights will help, but its a bit like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

[unlinkedstudent]

Using council vehicles more efficiently, and switching off a few street lights will help, but its a bit like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

 

Yeah but pennies turn into pounds.

[Ghostrider]

Using council vehicles more efficiently, and switching off a few street lights will help, but its a bit like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

 

Its about realigning a long standing and deeply entrenched attitude and culture, best to start off gently and work from there, than something drastic....like making councillors bring their own biscuits, and make their own tea or coffee at meetings.

[icepick239]

Its about realigning a long standing and deeply entrenched attitude and culture, best to start off gently and work from there, than something drastic....like making councillors bring their own biscuits, and make their own tea or coffee at meetings.

"Let them eat cake"

Whit, who said that

Doesna mater, let's vote on it.

[jamlar]

If most of these van drivers dont have their own transport maybe itms time that the bus servicer were updated..I am sure it will save thousands in the long run..

 

BTW just how much is the fuel bill for all these van drivers that take their vans home and does the council pay the fuel costs for the time they officially " Clock Off"?

 

Also why is it that some staff prefer to work week ends when the costs would be less if the work was carried out in normal working hours ( I am not referring to Emergencies) just run of the mill work...

 

Hourly rates for example ! man 1 van 10 min job running sealant round window istead of fixing leak Time 10 mins cost £ 147...when I questioned this I was told that the charge is started in Lerwick. Now does that make sense?

 

 

 

Fantastic get me a job with the council, FREE TRANSPORT to and from work and if I F**k up and am CRAP at my job get paid Thousands...SORTED

[jamlar]

its depends what department it is with the works trucks etc.

they take them homempick up the guys and ehad straight to their location for starting work VERY early. My opinion that is not a waste. They get there to start early so that the job is done.

 

And what is stopping them from driving to work early in their own vehicles or getting public transport? Is it essential that they start before 8.00am/9.00am? If they are doing noisy work, then legally speaking, they couldn't start hammering away before a certain time anyway. Are you suggesting that if they didn't take the vans home with them that they would never do a productive 7 or 7.5 hr day?

 

A lot of council manual workers start at 7.30 am, before the buses are running and they work at locations all over Shetland. I seem to mind that at one time there was a policy for workers to come into their base, eg Lerwick, before going out to their job for the day, but it was realised that it was more efficient for them to go straight to wherever they were actually working.

 

My god what a load of tosh.....BOO BLOODY HOO, have to start at 7.30, ANYWHERE ELSE in the UK it is YOUR responsibilty to get to and from work. What is the point of workers taking the vans home when they have to travel back in the depot/building centres in Lerwick to collect/buy items needed to do the repairs.

 

Surely it would be more practical and reduce fuels costs if they were given their jobs from Lerwick so that they can collect all the neccessary parts to do the repair job before they left Lerwick.