H.B.C. Council Tax/savings.
 

H.B.C. have announced the next Council Tax will be frozen, and identified some ways to save money, including...

'£14,000 by buying fewer copies of the Lancashire Evening Post'
ConservativeHome's Local Government Blog: Hyndburn freezes Council Tax

Fourteen grand spent on what's basically a local paper...in Preston!

Like our own area's Lancashire Telegraph, it has a website, which is totally free to access.

How many copies of the Lancashire Evening Post can be bought with £14,000. in a year?

What are they doing, insulating the roof at Scaitcliffe House with it?

If they're spending this amount of our money on non-local newspapers, finding other daft things to save a million quid on should be a breeze.

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£14.000 by buying fewer copies, makes you wonder what the total spend is.

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One such council( can't remember which one) has decided to axe It's £30-000-00 biscuit bill.:eek:

Poor do when a man can't have a biccy!:D:D

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I can't find how much a copy of the Lancashire Evening Post costs.

Anyone in Preston know, then we can work out just how many copies fourteen grand buys?

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I'm fairly sure it's 52p a copy which works out at 26,923 copies of the paper.

I used to work for LCC and one of the councillors at the time, Nora Ward, used to go mental if her paper wasn't hand delivered to her office as soon as it came to reception. I don't know where she is now but I hope she is as unhappy as the poor staff working for her, she was an awful woman.

Before I became self-employed, it was always common practice wherever I worked to take your own biscuits and buy your own paper. Everyone also had to pay tea and coffee subs each week to cover the cost of drinks.

I personally don't see why it should be any different for council offices.

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A tax freeze isn't quite as good as it might sound, either.

There's precious little money to go around as it is and large chunks of what remains tend to be directed towards one particular area which means that the smaller wards stand even less chance of getting improvements this year.

Cutbacks to save money and freeze taxes have affected Rishton residents quite badly. We have lost our social and youth office in the past month and several of the services at the specialist clinic have been moved to a church hall in Great Harwood.

It isn't going down well with the residents, particularly the less-mobile ones.

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I agree, only time it should be provided is when there are meetings with visitors present.

I don't want them charging me for my coffee when I am in for meetings :D

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Thank you Ken.

If the Lancashire Evening Post costs 52 pence per copy, and assuming it's published six days per week, that means Hyndburn Borough Council is buying 26,923 papers a year, which over the six day's it's published is 86 copies per day...of a non-local newspaper!

Where the hell are they going, and who is reading them?

Considering there is no recycling of trade waste in Hyndburn, which H.B.C.'s refuge is classed as, where do they end up?

As well as being an outrageous waste of money, it looks like H.B.C. is producing it's own paper mountain.

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When I worked at DHSS we had ONE local paper a day delivered so that the job section could be perused during those 'helping find work' interviews. Workers paid for their own refreshments, but visiting VIP guests were 'refreshed' at public expense.

This gravy train of perks appears to be at local government level only, and appears to be instigated by councillors.

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Happily for politicans the financial year always comes but a short time before the May elections.

Handy that.

:rolleyes:

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Thats actually how many fewer it's going to buy ;). The top of Ormerod St used to be level with the bottom of it, until the paper boy arrrived at Scaitcliffe House :D

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Hell's teeth, it's no wonder Britcliffe used his Observer column to thank his paper boy for managing to get through the snow, and safely deliver his newspapers.

The little lad probably drives a juggernaut!

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By the way, thank you to the Conservative Home website, for providing this up to the minute report, and associated figures and quotes, as the local press haven't yet published the story online.

The council leader Cllr Peter Britcliffe said before the meeting:

“Just in the next financial year we must make £1 million of savings and I am calling on all councillors and staff to unite and come forward with ideas to cut costs and keep council tax low.
“Over the next four weeks it is vital that we all join together to find the cost reductions that the people of Hyndburn need.”

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It's a very good point and another thing worth considering as most offices now have paper recycling bins on every floor. Why should the council, of all places, be exempt from that too?

News-wise, there is little of relevance to Hyndburn in the LEP and in all honesty it barely stretches to include Chorley, let alone Blackburn and beyond. It's very much on a par with the Lancashire Telegraph in terms of style so buying that would be the better option, assuming they don't already. I'd rather have seen £14k of Hyndburn money ploughed back into a Hyndburn business than a Preston one.

Finding £1m of savings shouldn't be too difficult but I feel fairly sure that the same paranoia is endemic at HBC as in other councils, namely that if they make savings this year they won't be allowed the same money next year. I am reliably informed that this is less the case than it used to be but from experience I know that plenty of civil servants are house-trained to be bureaucratic empire builders and reluctant to let go of something once they have it.

It's appalling cynicism on my part but having watched it happen I know that reduction of funding is the mark of absolute failure within the civil service.

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Oi !!! -as an ex civil servant I take exception to that.
It is not the civil service we discuss here - it is local government service
...a whole different ball game I can assure you

PS I once controlled the annual budget for running costs at Melbourne House and we were very strict - eg. permission had to be sought for any personal phone calls - even local ones.

PPS If you wonder how that worked - I examined the itemised bills in great detail and the staff knew it. (Offenders were warned), and phone card application forms were issued to all staff so that they could charge against their home phone

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I humbly stand corrected.....

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I should think so too :mad:- a local councillor should know the difference

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I read this on ConHome but I doubt it true. I have never see a copy in 8 years of the LEP.

We do purchase the Ob and LET. Not sure about magazines and periodicals.

£14k approx is £170 approx pe week. Seems high?? 50p a paper would equate to 340 copies a week?

LCC cut the bill on periodicals. I think someone posting on ConHome (candidate IIRC?) has got crossed wires between HBC and LCC.

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Surely not.

The Conservatives, guilty of sloppiness and inaccuracy?

It does seem an outrageous amount, but having the direct quote from Cllr. Britcliffe does makes it appear as though the facts are reproduced verbatim.

Still, they say all publicity is good publicity.

:rolleyes:

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Whether factually accurate or not, no one's corrected the figures on the ConservativeHome website.

There's never a young political activist around when you need one.

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Very nice of you to say that, Margaret, and I'm always open to correction when I'm wrong. However, I'm not actually a councillor.....yet.

They could have done with an accountant like you when they blew £200k on the new logo for Burnley council.

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The article is here
ConservativeHome's Local Government Blog: Hyndburn freezes Council Tax

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Er...and here, in post one of the thread.;):D

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Though if the figures are incorrect, which we can only hope, no Tory eager beaver has bothered to amend them.

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Why are the Council buying an Evening paper (Lancashire Evening Post), surely all the folks at the public trough have gone home for the day by the time the paper comes out ?

Whats happened to AndrewB ?, he used to keep us updated on the local fiddles and the comings and goings of the local Tories . Hope G Jones hasn't had him kidnapped to some Labour gulag for re-education for asking too many questions

I'm joking , Labour would never admit to kidnapping and brainwashing :D :D

Re: H.B.C. Council Tax/savings.
 

...and it's all free, gratis, costing nowt... when online, the very next day.

You could argue the press office should have a copy, but fifty two pence multiplied by the six days it's published, times by the weeks in a year, does not equate to fourteen thousand pounds per annum.

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I've got an idea that would shave shedloads of money from the council's budget and prove just how committed to saving taxpayers money our councillors really are.

How about forgoing their Allowances and Expenses for a year, starting with 'I'm worth every penny' Britcliffe?

Then perhaps something could be done about restricting the provision of interest free loans to council employees, followed swiftly by ending the practice of providing ludicrously generous relocation grants and Golden Handshakes.

I have often thought that in an organisation which employs so many women it is deeply odd that the concept of strict budgeting should be so difficult to achieve and maintain. One wonders what their home lives must be like. If they run their homes like this council appears to be run, then perhaps it is no wonder they need so many perks and privileges.

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Another thought; As the government is very keen on encouraging the increased use of Public Transport as a way of reducing the country's carbon footprint. Why does this council not provide an example to us all by removing the allowances it pays for its employees to travel by car and insist instead that it will only reimburse public transport costs? The amount of carparking space taken up by Scaitcliffe House, positioned as it is in the centre of town, is disgraceful. I am sure that the land thus freed could be used to much better purpose, and dare I say it, Profit!

I note that recently the council spent many thousands of our pounds to provide gym facilities for its employees in the old manchester bank building on Canon Street. Surely it would be far cheaper and much more environmentally friendly to encourage it's employees to walk wherever they are going.

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So you want the position of Councillor to exclusive to the rich who can afford to work for nothing?

That is one of your not so good ideas :rolleyes:

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I think you are detached from the real world. Unfortunately public transport is not good enough around here. I can't even get to and from work on public transport. Don't forget the cost of paying employees to stand at bus/train stops and walk to the bus stop etc. A simple meeting in Manchester would take all day instead of just a few hours.

Many businesses provide gym facilities for employees, we have a very nice gym at my work. If you want to encourage the best people to work for you you need to provide more that just wages.

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Acidic-babs didn't say you.

;)

He suggested those who are employed by the council, and who currently get travel allowances, should use public transport.

There's plenty of people in the borough who have no choice, other than to use our public transport system.

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I know what he said.

I said

It does not look very professional when you have to ask them to make the meeting later as your bus does not arrive in time for the 9am meeting.

Then there is turning up soaking wet because its a 20 minute walk from the train station to the meeting and you can't get a taxi because its not public transport enough :rolleyes:

We have work going on in the park at the moment. One of the Council Officers is responsible for this work and other works around Hyndburn. Do you seriously think he should spend all day sat on buses to get from one site to another?

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It's a good job you don't work in London.

99.99% of the population uses public transport, and they manage quite well.

If it rains they use a brolly.

The only people who are ferried about in cars are the Queen, and her ministers.

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Like I said, there are lots of people who don't have any other option, other than using public transport.

I'm neither agreeing, nor disagreeing with A-b, just pointing out that he wasn't suggesting you go to work on public transport.

I will make the comment that if councillors, for example, had to use public transport, I'd bet we'd see a marked increase in the level of service.

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The public transport works well in London and other big Cities. I am supposed to be out with the lads from work in Manchester on Thursday, the last bus home leaves just after 9pm. What a great service we have :rolleyes::D

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How?

It is all privatised so there is not a lot they can do except maybe have the bus stops moved to their front doors :rolleyes::D

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and that would not surprise me one bit if it happened

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For the benefit of the hard of understanding, I will try and elucidate on my comments. In the first Idea I included a quote from Britcliffe re: saving rates payers money. The point of the idea which followed was first to suggest a way round this and secondly to point out what a fat, fatuous, hypocrite Britcliffe is. If he were really as concerned as his public pronouncements make out then he would be the first to say I don't need it this year. After all the position that councillors occupy is not meant to be a full-time job.

The point of the second idea was to point out that the public transport system round here is in such a crappy state that perhaps if those responsible for it had to use it then things might improve for the rest of us. It also makes me boil with anger at the profligate waste of cash and resources that council employees are responsible for. Why shouldn't they walk to work, like many of the people whose hard earned money pays their bloated salaries and over generous pensions?

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Although I passed my driving test when I was seventeen, I didn't own a car until I was forty, and used public transport to travel the length and breadth of the country, so perhaps have a slightly differing attitude, having been a regular user.

As for your lads night out.

You could get the last train from Manchester Victoria, which'll get you back at 23.51.
Which then leaves a twenty five minute walk from Blackburn, depending on you not being too tipsy, in which case it could take longer. But it used to take me that time, going via Audley Range, which is quicker.

:D

:D

Re: H.B.C. Council Tax/savings.
 

I was always taught that one should cut one's suit according to one's cloth. How about saving the money and have your nights out in Accrington. And before you counter with the "its no good in accy" argument, it might be different if a more varied and responsible crowd were using the town centre and it was not abandoned to the chavs. After all, markets are supposed to be very good a responding to the needs of their users.

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Good idea, bring your Scally workmates here for their night on the razz.

I'm sure they'd find lots of people willing to put them up!

:D

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You are as usual right, I could just get a taxi both ways or maybe stop over in a hotel but it does feel a bit extravagant;)


I work just outside Liverpool and the engineers come from all over the area, from on The Wirrel, Preston, Nelson and Manchester so we can't just walk into Accy for a couple of beers :p

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Settle down you will do yourself an injury :p

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Which sort of proves a point. In a more sensible age, you would all have lived within walking distance of where you worked. And would probably have been fitter for it. But now, like many others, you contribute to the degredation of the atmosphere on a daily basis. Mind you, I can talk! I commute to and from Blackpool everyday. I do feel there must be more to life than this.

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I'm sure your mother would have informed you that travel would be involved, when you announced your intention of becoming a lion tamer.

:D

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I spend about £3000 a year on diesel, just think of all the good the Government will be doing with the tax they get from me :rolleyes::D

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hahahahahaha even the internet cant hold the amount of reasons why anyone shlouldnt have a night out in accy :D

thats why almost everyone drinks elsewhere and anywhere but accrington

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how about cutting back on catering .. when you have a meeting that lasts all day .. and HBC does the catering for the lunch .. instead of paying for catering .. why not say to the people attending the meeting that it wouldnt be catered anymore ... tea/coffee ok . but not spud pie, cheese and onion pie, salads, fruit salad, cream cakes, etc .. might save some cash that way.

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That happens here as well.

Big boss in the other week and all all those that attended the news brief were eating pizza afterwards.

Its another thing that happens in business - not saying I agree with it though.

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if councils want to save money why dont they go for the cheapest and best for value when giving out contracts and not use substandard products and services because somone paid a better bribe to land them teh contract

look at broadway for example im not saying a bribe was taken but the work was done by a foreign company who were paid a hell of a lot of money to fly over here to lay cobbles that had to be dug up and redone 12 months later or maybe 2 years tops

hardly a good investment infact broadway still isnt right despite the millions that has been thrown away on it

heres an idea

tarmac it , scrap the fancy stuff on the floor like tiles and mosaics and provide a surface that is actually safe to walk on when wet because believe it or not tiles and mosaics get slippery when wet and england gets a lot of wet weather :rolleyes:

the next time a mayor has a celebration DONT blow 10 grand or possibly more on hireing a funfair ride that then causes more damage to broadway and creates more repair work to be done and again done to a substandard level

abandon any crackpot idea the council have to make us appear to be continental looking we are a town not a major city and concentrate on preserving what we have notthat there is anything left after the towns heritage and histoiry has been literealy oblitorated by previous council endevors like the arndale and the destruction of the outside market

this town has been destroyed and potentialy bankrupted by idiots who have no idea what they are doing and will allow anything to be built here as long as they either get a big personal benefit from it or their name on a shiny plaque.

stop driving small buisnesses away from the town by charging extortionate rates i know one particular buisness man who packed up and moved away from accrington because not only were the rates extortionate and unrealistic the council put double yellow lines outside his buisness and booked him if he dared to park outside his own shop to load deliveries

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at £9 per head? :rolleyes:

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A culture of frugality can go too far sometimes

I have mentioned my personal experience of budget control.
Well here is one to amuse you.

Cleaning staff were under my control and refilling toilet paper dispensers was part of their job.

The head cleaner took the trouble to inform me which members of staff used too much toilet paper. :rolleyes:
I didn't ask how she knew, or how she decided what was too much.

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theres always one arsewipe willing to know such facts :)

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Best way to speed up meetings , make them drink free ....No tea/coffee and especially No bottles of water (Evian etc.) , some folk thing attending a 1 hour meeting is as hard ship akin to a trans Saharan trek

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Anyone with a modicum of common sense, and more than a passing aquaintance with what's good P.R., and what's not, would have realised that saving money, and not awarding themselves increased expenses, above what had been recommended by an independent panel, would have been a wise move.

Since the world's economic downturn was hardly a bolt from the blue, but was accurately forecast, and happened over a period of time, it would have been comforting if some of our leaders had the gift of having a little more foresight when it came to excessive spending, and the resulting savings and cuts that are now to follow.

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...and-45105.html

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Actually this can become a high cost expense especially when you have empoyees who think taking the odd roll home a couple of times a week is no problem ....best to drop the old saying now and then "Two sheets , one to wipe and one to polish " ;)

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Or do as the Romans did, use a stick.

Hopefully no one's going to nick that and take it home.

:eek:

:D

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They were single sheet dispensers, not rolls, which logic would dictate to be less attractive to steal.
...but the stock had to be locked up, because they had been 'going missing'.
Soap was another stealable item - we reverted to liquid dispensers (which are more hygenic anyway)

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You didn't see this woman nipping into the ladies loos?


YouTube - Marie Osmond (video) Paper Roses

:D

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You leave Marie out of this , keep one of her CD's in my truck , good driving music :D

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The winsome Mormon may have a good voice, but she's excluded from many places because she can't stop her hands tearing other people's paper into her idea of flowers.

:D