Another example of how cash strapped councils waste money

[Notch7]

So you are happy to have rubbish services and things like this always go up.

Everything has been privatised, no wonder we keep paying more to get less.

Wealthy businesses give money to political parties in exchange for influence on political policy….especially in order to gain nice big contracts.

Deloitte, Group4S, Serco are all Conservative donors….and they all have got nice contracts out Rwanda scheme, as well as over priced contracts during covid.

This is not exclusive to Conservatives, Labour have wealthy donors now which will be jockeying for favours.

Blairs PFIs cost NHS a fair chunk


Etc etc

We don’t need to pay more, we need the wealthy to stop siphoning off our money.

 

[nwgs]

We don’t need to pay more, we need the wealthy to stop siphoning off our money.

I think we can all agree on that!

Labour selling off our gold, sunak almost wheelbarrowing money to his in-laws. There’s no difference between the parties. Just **** takers stealing our money.

 

[Bod ...]

Nah, I don't buy that. Most of it is caused by lack of funding.

Mainly just badly managed funds.

 

[Justin Passing]

2nd sentence, more money doesnt always mean better services. We only need to look at (recent) history for that

Mainly just badly managed funds.

However good your management is, if you have too little money you're stuffed.

But
A relative now retired was financial controller at a successful council. Very bright bloke, very down to earth. Left school at 16 and did night school to get his accountancy and other qualifications..
They had low council tax rates and very good services. No chance of a backhander there, any hint of it attracted an inquisition, so it didn't happen. As usual everything was contracted out, but they were very hot with lawyers crawling through contracts to make sure performance parameters were maintained, or the contractor didn't get their money. Apart from bins and whatnot, they had the best community mental health services in the country, I remember him explaining. He'd routinely take the p out of the borough I'm in, where the council tax was a lot higher.
You need efficient mechanisms like that.
He has a bit of the "Stewart Rose" about him.

Same sort of practices that should be used to get the country more productive and earning money, with high standards and investments for the long term good.
Maybe a character like John McDonnell could achieve something, but you need the carrot AND the stick, you can't just rant about successful businesses having to pay - for others' inefficiencies.

 

[gas112]

Nah, I don't buy that. Most of it is caused by lack of funding.

Lack of funding you mean no accountability the amount of times you see the same pot holes forming again within weeks and getting repaired again and again and paid for is a joke

 

[denso13]

you mean no accountability

No I don't mean that.

the amount of times you see the same pot holes forming again within weeks and getting repaired again and again and paid for is a joke

I have never seen the same pothole getting repaired again and again and again. We must be better at it up here...

There are failures in all walks of life, it doesn't mean that all council's are poor.

 

[Brigadier]

Lack of funding you mean no accountability the amount of times you see the same pot holes forming again within weeks and getting repaired again and again and paid for is a joke

Same sort of thing happens in the private sector; it's just that you don't see it.

We return on a cyclical basis to sites for some clients, to oversee the same bodge job time and again. Even though we're bored of telling them it would make more sense to be done once - properly - and would no longer be an ongoing cost nor disruption.
They just have the modus operandi of "bodge it every [six weeks] and stay trading, rather than close for a day and do it properly".

 

[JohnD]

Mainly just badly managed funds.

An easy but meaningless excuse.

If you load on more work, and consistently reduce resources, it is to be expected that less work will be done, and standards will fall.

Can anyone seriously deny that actions have consequences?

UK public services are unacceptably poor.

 

[Mottie]

Top of our street has some serious potholes. Plenty of people have complained but apparently they don’t have the money to fix them. This morning, they came and repainted the centre line markings, the double yellows and the '20mph’ signs on the road surface and the painting is actually going into many potholes!

Here you go. Cracking job.

 

[Brigadier]

Here you go. Cracking job.

View attachment 336712

"Great" Britain

 

[gas112]

Same sort of thing happens in the private sector; it's just that you don't see it.

We return on a cyclical basis to sites for some clients, to oversee the same bodge job time and again. Even though we're bored of telling them it would make more sense to be done once - properly - and would no longer be an ongoing cost nor disruption.
They just have the modus operandi of "bodge it every [six weeks] and stay trading, rather than close for a day and do it properly".

Not public money though

 

[gas112]

No I don't mean that.

I have never seen the same pothole getting repaired again and again and again. We must be better at it up here...

There are failures in all walks of life, it doesn't mean that all council's are poor.

Yeah my arse it's a weekly occurrence throughout the country . When I was driving I glasgow the other week it was like the dam busters had done a bombing raid

 

[denso13]

Yeah my arse it's a weekly occurrence throughout the country

It might be common, I don't know. Our council has done an awful lot of complete resurfacing around our way and it is noticeable the difference it has made. I still don't think they are all useless.

 

[securespark]

Local to where I live the council constructed a shared cycle/footpath alongside a road. If cyclists use the cycle path then they have to give way to traffic at every junction where side roads meet the main road.

We have a similar shared path, but in our case, cars have to give way to the cyclists, then again to join the main road.

 

[blup]

Near us they have built half a mile of new cycle track. It doesn't connect anything up and is not used. The Council's defence is that is was funded by central government. The attitude is we're spending someone else's money and it ticks boxes. The one in Exeter is capital spend so can't be used on revenue projects like toilets and bramble cutting afaik. Its true that central government expect transport policies to include cycle track provision.