As anyone living in Barking & Dagenham, or outside with any interest and a computer can click on the councils website and after a little hunting can find in the agendas for the select/scrutiny committee meetings the Options for cuts.
This is because the council has to find some 48 million in cuts we read, in the reports and in the local press.
There is also on the agenda for the Executive the proposals for increase in charges.
None of these reports are making for easy reading, council staff will loose their jobs, services will be cut altogether or trimmed down.
We can fully appreciate that difficult times such as these call for difficult decisions, and we know that as well as the staff that will loose their jobs it is the residents of the borough who will feel the most pain of these cuts.
But, just what cuts are the elected members making? well we can always assume that the usual tea, coffee and biscuits for meetings will get cut, at least for the first 3 months and then quietly make their way back, but, what else? Nothing!!!!!!
Well lets have a look at one prominent member, he has his own business registered at Companies House, he works for a Registered Charity in the borough, his wages for this job come from public funds. He receives as all members do just over £10,000 per annum on top of this he receives a little over £3,000 as a Lead Member on a select committee, these monies come from public funds. He also receives £7,500 per annum as a non Exec member of the PCT again paid out of public funds.
So quite a nice little income really, just how much is he and the other 50 members of the council prepared to sacrifice to share the pain that the community they were elected to represent are going to feel?
How about the option that for the financial year April 2011 all 51 members offer up their basic £10,000 per annum?
This we are sure you will know makes a good saving of in excess of £510,000 quite a tidy sum, which could very well mean that some council staff do not loose their jobs.
And lets face it no councillor should depend on that £10,000 per annum, you never know when a by-election could be called.
So the question we pose to the members is are you up for the sacrifice?
Editor your starting to sound more like the bnp with every post, but like them you are barking up the wrong tree.
ReplyDeleteBeing a councillor is a job and based on 20 hours a week it works out at just over £8 an hour after tax and other payments to the party. (if you were a member you would know this?)
I believe thats less then the hourly rate at lidl's.
Maybe you could work there as you seem to have a lot of time on your hands now?
Are you saying you are not prepared to make the sacrifice then? didnt think so.
ReplyDeleteSacrifices are being made,by clearing up the mess you clowns left behind,and the money you wasted on hairbrained schemes, that cost the council a lot of expense, and most of them failed miserably, neighbourhood management being one,overrated wages and costs for a terrible scheme,it seems you love to gloat,well gloat over the times you sat on your backsides and did nothing over the last 4 years,get a life, SACRIFICE you dont know the meaning of the word
ReplyDeleteEditor our sacrifice is to make up for your mistakes and may I say none of the old councillors said no to there allowance either.
ReplyDeleteWe now need to earn our allowance unlike some!
Happy job hunting....
i agree editor that sacrifices need to made and an open letter to all current councillors is an idea i would agree with as long as all previous councillors are also written to especially the ones previously on the executive who clearly did nothing for their allowance of over £27,000.
ReplyDeleteNew members seem to be earning their allowance cleaning up the mess that the old lot left behind.
check the scrutiny minutes they are riddled with references to poor house keeping and over spends over the last 5-10 years.
officers were unaccountable and members were clueless.
you are right though you never know when a by election or a deselection will happen and people may end up in the jobcentre......
What a bunch of wankers!!!! the administration in place today is little different to that before May, in fact there are only a couple of minor changes on the executive. But, you lot appear to be blaming the administration before May for the proposed budget cuts.
ReplyDeleteIm pretty sure the leader and the cabinet members will be very pleased to hear that you are blaming them. Seems labour group dont need any outside opposistion when its already there in the group.
And you still failed to answer the question just what are you prepared to sacrifice
dagenham member
Typical dagenham member, resorting to a foul mouth tirade when all else fails. Thats just the point the executive made the mistakes of the past and will continue to do so.
ReplyDeleteCllr alexander presided over successive £1 million over spends in her previous role and she is still there.
The sacrifice for the new members will be the extra time needed to ensure that the mistakes of the past are never repeated
Your statement about the extra time you are allegedly working is questionable, its certainly not supported by your attendance statistics.
ReplyDeleteOver the next few days we will publish the stats and name and shame.
None of our current labour councillors new or old would apply for a job in Lidl's as they may actually have to WORK for a living rather than take allowances that they have done very little to earn each month, it appears that most have gone under-ground joining the wombles. The council stats speak for themselves with what work load they have managed to achieve month on month it's a complete disgrace.
ReplyDeleteBut we must not expect any better than that as you only had to watch Ms Hodge on Tuesday evening and that put it all into perspective, How she even had the ghoul to tell a resident that if BNP was to win seat's they would make his Chinese wife's life a misery. Ms Hodge made herself look worse than any BNP candidate for all her under-hand dirty tactics visiting mosques to gain votes from the asian community when it was Labour that that have put our troops to war. We need a compulsory 2 year national service that would sign up any non-british national to our army if they wish to seek refuge in this country they must fight for britain first.