Council snookered by money crisis 16/2/12
Sirs,
So the council are running out of money, this is nothing new, even governments run out of money!
But what I find odd is the way the councillors are reacting to the crisis, if it is a crisis. They knew that they were short of money manny moons ago and they had a wonderfull opportunity to streamline the council but never grasped the nettle because they couldnt hands are too soft and they are a mamby pamby lot of finger pointers
The best way to stop a company running out of money is to look at the staffing levels.
Every company always carries deadwood and usually the deadwood tends to be at the
top.They tend to create domains for themselves -
If the councillors had bottle they would start weeding from the top. They should
stop hiring Edinburgh and Glasgow based expensive solicters. That in its self would
save a fortune. They should stop hiring civil engineering consultants as their own
employees have the same qualifications as the one they hire -
When advertising for personnel they should use the computer media. An advert in the Scotsman or Glasgow Herald cost thousands where as Heb News is cheap and they have more veiwers than the two papers mentioned put together.
Why do councillors seem so vague when it comes to saving money, have they no business acum?
I see that the crofter councillor from Barra is getting concerned about the aged. I would suggest that charity begins at home, before pen goes on paper to fill in expense forms save a thought for the poor old people of the Weatern Isles and if conscience works the old will be well looked after.
Another thing that would save money: there are too many councillors,they should be
cut back to ten. Half the time is wasted talking nonsense -
Too much money is going to the Police,75% of their cost is paid by the council. Remember that we only have a population of 28,000 and most of that population is over 50. I do remember when we were controled by Inverness we only had one policeman working from home.Now we have 10 and three stations and they keep Loganair busy transporting alledged criminals to Stornoway
Incompetence lost £56 million to BCCI in the 90s. The wrong ones lost their jobs, councillors went on a frenzy to get their faces on telly, all the council assets were put in hock to stem the hole in budgets. Yet they got that money back, where did it go? Was any put aside for a crisis such as this or was it just spend,spend,spend and have nothing to show for it.
Angus A Macdonald,
20 Balivanich
Benbecula
PS I was formerly a councilllor and the other councillors allowed the adminstration to spend £275,000 to get rid of me by raising an action against me in the Court of Session for an alledged debt of £15,000 for quarry royalities.
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