Self-sustaining Shetland

[Urabug]

 

one point ...our oil fund is managed and should be for Shetland ..i have not seen any payments outwith the isle so far but knowing the following of the SIC that could be buried ..the biggest rouge in the woodpile is the Tory turds in Westmonster and their own greed to fill the pockets of oil and any other industry that will fill their coffers come election time 

By refusing to give us enough money to cover basic services, forcing the SIC to dip into it's reserves every year, means we are indirectly subsidising the rest of the country. Not to mention the "per pupil" funding formula which leaves Shetland short of enough money to fund it's schools. 

 

Then why on earth do we use our reserves, is that not the incompetence of those who manage it.

The government is only addressing the squandering of public funds in all councils and other establishments and that is what is causing this austerity.(not that I completely agree with it ) 

Problem would be solved if those in a position to do so, would grasp the nettle firmly and get rid of all the unnecessary staff.that are simply creating needless mountains of administration work within their own and other departments simply to keep themselves in a job. A job you and I and everyone else who pays tax are paying for

I would like to see a list of all the council jobs and there relevance to the efficiency to the service.in which they are attached..

Edited December 16, 2016 by Urabug

[Ghostrider]

 I would like to see a list of all the council jobs and there relevance to the efficiency to the service.in which they are attached..

 

Yes, and deep scrutiny at all levels of what the council does as to how appropriately and efficiently relevant work is undertaken. Time and time again they get hold of either only part of the facts or the wrong end of the stick entirely, or worse still completely misunderstand/misinterpret what they are dealing with and create their own fairy story which has no connection to reality, then pursue that, and only that with an obsessive, relentless fervour thats bordering on the scary, regardless of how many folk try to tell them or present evidence to them that they're barking up entirely the wrong tree.

 

Then there is the added inability to engage and discuss an issue so as to try and reach a mutually acceptable middle ground, again regardless of how many folk throw however much evidence at them, they simply ignore and repeat their original stance over and over again, regardless of how inaccurate, wrong, or just simply downright impossible they have been told, or proof provided to them, it is. Dealing with the council is such situations, which is the vast majority, rapidly becomes a version of two kids in a school playground going "sot", "not", "sot", "not" ad infinitum. There is a blanket and clear, to those on the outside looking in at least, total refusal/inability right across the whole council at almost every level to conceive that something they believe, however small or unimportant to their bigger picture, could possibly be inaccurate or wrong.

 

Then lets not consider the council's infamous twisted version of "pass the parcel", where since Day 1 of the SIC, if you phone up to ask a question without knowing the name of the person to talk to for it (and lets face it, how often does anyone know the job title/name of the person relevant to any one given random question), you either get passed from person to person, none of whom know the answer, or who knows the answer, until you're passed right round in a circle back to the person you started out talking to, or the line "mysteriously" "drops" when being transferred between people in the circle.

 

None of this is of course any big deal in and of themselves, but the cumulative "waste" when combined and multiplied year on year the cost quickly gets scary.

[Ghostrider]

the biggest rouge in the woodpile is the Tory turds in Westmonster and their own greed to fill the pockets of oil and any other industry that will fill their coffers come election time 

 

Regardless of whether thats true or not, it is the biggest shifting-blame non-excuse going.

 

The behaviour in London has no direct impact whatsoever on how local councils are financed or the levels of finance provided to them. Those are wholly, in the case of Scottish councils, the preserve of Edinburgh, and if London isn't giving Edinburgh enough to adequately finance all Scottish councils properly, that is a beef between Edinburgh and London, no-one else.

 

The fact that cuts from London have been trotted out time and time again to excuse lack of support from Edinburgh, indicates just one thing, The fact that cuts from London have been trotted out time and time again to excuse lack of support from Edinburgh, indicates just one thing, that Edinburgh is incapable/unwilling/unable to fight for and win a better financing deal from London, which amounts to the same in the end, they're just not up to the job.

 

London whines about Brussels, Edinburgh whines about London, Lerwick whines about Edinburgh, when in fact they're all as bad as each other, and its no more one's fault than the other, they're all taking more than they're due and short changing the folk in the giving back. Hence the fewer of the beggers we have poncing off us the better, get rid of at least two of the four layers, get rid of three of them if it can be made to work, then what money is will maybe be spent mostly on the folk, and not on the legions of non-jobs and their all consuming political machines.

Edited December 16, 2016 by Ghostrider

[Urabug]

If it wis'na fur dis quantized easing,I would guess wir counciles wid be even more constipated .

[whalsa]

A resurrection of this thread could be timely.

 

https://www.facebook.com/1827209504230243/posts/2300086053609250/

 

A well written Facebook post by Councillor Ryan Thomson bemoaning the Governments continuous failure to treat Shetland fairly. Then posing the question would we be better off as an autonomous region.

 

Bring it on I say!

[whalsa]

Hmm... strangely after a few hours and 120 odd votes (over 90% in favour of Shetland autonomy) Ryan’s post has inexplicably disappeared..

[whalsa]

Apparently said Poll has been reported and investigated for Hate Speech and so removed by Facebook...

[Ghostrider]

^ Welcome to 1984.

[whalsa]

Absolutely outrageous. In the post Cllr Thomson spelled out several ways in which the government is failing shetland - all verifiable fact. He then went on to ask the question "If proven beneficial to Shetland, should we move towards becoming an Autonomous Region". The exact wording escapes me but that was basically it. The result was over 90% Yes.

Facebook received a report of Hate Speech, removed the post, investigated and upheld the complaint, even on appeal. They say it breaches community standards but fail to explain exactly how. 

Unbelievable internet censorship.

[Colin]

I'm afraid that "internet censoreship" is all the rage just now.  We are not allowed to say anything that might "rock the boat" and offend anyone who thinks in the "mainstream narrative".

 

It's way to easy to complain and, as a result, has a direct effect on the very limited "freedom of speech" we have.   The idiots just don't realise that their turn to be silenced will come.

 

Vote with your feet and wallet.  Leave facebook  ....

[George.]

Absolutely outrageous. In the post Cllr Thomson spelled out several ways in which the government is failing shetland - all verifiable fact. He then went on to ask the question "If proven beneficial to Shetland, should we move towards becoming an Autonomous Region". 

Surely, Shetland should have gone indy the moment Christian I pawned the place to James III in 1469.

[Colin]

I see from a quick glance at the ST Headlines in today's paper that the SIC are £18,000,000 short in their budget and are having to draw on "reserves"..

 

OK, they might have been "short changed" by Hollyrood but, that's between 8 and 9,000 for every person on Shetland.

Just what the hell do they (SIC) spend the money on ?

 

Autonomy ? Bring it on..

[George.]

OK, they might have been "short changed" by Hollyrood but, that's between 8 and 9,000 for every person on Shetland.

Holyrood does what Westminster tells it to do, just like the Welsh excuse for a government.

[whalsa]

I see from a quick glance at the ST Headlines in today's paper that the SIC are £18,000,000 short in their budget and are having to draw on "reserves"..

 

OK, they might have been "short changed" by Hollyrood but, that's between 8 and 9,000 for every person on Shetland.

Just what the hell do they (SIC) spend the money on ?

 

Autonomy ? Bring it on..

I think only about £3-4m of that is what is being deemed unsustainable. The Harbour Account and return from investments allows the Council to pay for services we otherwise wouldn’t have.

 

The Council would have set a balanced and sustainbale budget if Holyrood had followed through on its promise of Fair Ferry Funding.

 

The Council is under huge cost pressures from decreasing funding, increasing demand (e.g. more old folk needing care) as well as rising costs (e.g. the public sector pay cap beint lifted).

 

I daresay efficiencies and savings can be made but attempts have been ongoing for at least the whole of this Council and the last one, meaning it is getting harder and harder to find savings without impacting front line services.

 

One thing I firmly believe is we would not be in this position of managing decline if we had proper control over our own affairs and finances.

[Ghostrider]

I daresay efficiencies and savings can be made but attempts have been ongoing for at least the whole of this Council and the last one, meaning it is getting harder and harder to find savings without impacting front line services.

 

One thing I firmly believe is we would not be in this position of managing decline if we had proper control over our own affairs and finances.

 

 

whalsa, turkeys will not vote for Christmas.

 

Efficiencies and savings so far have been presided over by SIC staff, who by design will always make sure they, and their mates are 'I'm alright Jack' and are most likely to have a case of 'not being able to see the wood for the trees' symdrome. They have been almost exclusively restricted to delivering lesser service levels to achieve them, and not towards how to make their delivery more cost efficient.

 

Much as bringing in 'consultants' may be criticised, bringing in someone from outside who has extensive knowledge of both public and private sector and how they can operate most efficiently,, and has no allegiance to anyone but themselves to go over the whole place with a fine tooth comb. A 'hatchet man', a 'time and motion study', call it what you will, might be no bad thing.

 

From a personal experience point of view, the greatest waste of resources (read funds) is in the bad managerial and admin practices, and the attitude of some members of staff. Plus, more than a few very arguably highly 'un-necessary' posts.

 

A typical encounter with a SIC Dept goes something like this (actual events). Before the fact in a planned event a senior staff member undertakes in writing to advise the other party of the outcome of that event once it has occured. Other party waits a few weeks after the date of the event, but receives nothing, then writes enquiring what the outcome was. One month passes before the promised letter advising of the outcome is received. Upon examination the letter is found to be invalid due to being incorrectly dated, this is advised to the sender upon being discovered, along with a request that if the writer still stood by the contents of the letter, to please provide an amended copy with a valid date on it.

 

One month later a more senior member of staff replies, with a long winded diatribe about why the recipient should not want the letter at all........WTF? So, write back, explaining the reasons why the recipient deems the letter necessary, and pointing out it was they who offered and undertook to send it in the first place, it had never been asked for..... Another month passes, and back comes another diatribe from the more senior employee restating why they believed the recipient should not want the letter all...... So one more reply, stating that unless a valid version of the letter is received a stalemate exists, and the recipient will not proceed forward with any outstanding business between themselves and the SIC relating to the subject matter of the letter until a satisfactory resolution is achieved.

 

A fortnight later the requested letter (sort of) finally arrives from the more senior member of staff, written on the same day as that same person cynically filed Court papers against the recipient for not acting on the information contained in the letter......which, according to them the recipient shouldn't want, and who up to that point in time hadn't been provided with a valid copy of.

 

Of course, it went to Court, two hearings, which unsurprisingly were a total waste of time and money, as not only by the time the case was called had the situation had changed so much it bore little resemblance to its description in the filed papers. As the recipient had finally received a valid copy of the letter they'd been promised months prior, they'd acted upon its contents, and the situation had been largely addressed even before the Court papers were even served on them, several weeks after they were drawn up.

 

Yeah, I know, probably cost the SIC only a few hundred in wasted funds, a drop in the ocean. But, given that its only one example of many I have personal knowledge of, how many 'several hundreds' are being flushed down the tubes pointlessly every day that passes, that could be doing some needy person some good instead of been as useful as a flan whirling chip papers over the street in the early hours of a Saturday or Sunday morning......

 

No doubt, many managerial/admin structures and practices, along with some 'un-necessary' posts are forced upon the SIC from the great gods of Holyrood, so, yes, the sooner we're fully in charge of what gets done, who does it, and in what way, very much the better. In the meantime though, sending regular blasts of icy air through SIC offices inhabited by those who seem to think their employment is there primarily for their own convenience and entertainment can only do good.