Local Councils and Money
Discussion
Not my local council but next county, I'm sure there is logic in there somewhere to be paying almost £20m on external consultants to show how to save money 
https://www.frometimes.co.uk/somerset-council-to-s...
https://www.frometimes.co.uk/somerset-council-to-s...
Furbo said:
I used to sell to local authorities. Big ticket tech stuff. They used to hire consultants to deal with me, I think because if it went wrong no one on the Council would be directly to blame,
Exactly that, I see it all the time. If you never make a decision you can never be blamed for making it.I have worked in councils though not for coucils, I always said I would hate to be in my local council seeing the waste they create and their staffs attitude to doing anything different to what they were employed for. Maybe it's changed since 2010 though the unions were almighty powerful.
It's a nightmare, the charity I chair have been trying to lease a building the local council want to offload. So far we're 12 months in and have only just agreed HoT's.
The most pressing was a major push back by the council about not fixing non-compliant/dangerous fire services, fixtures and systems despite the building currently being an open to the public community centre.....
The most pressing was a major push back by the council about not fixing non-compliant/dangerous fire services, fixtures and systems despite the building currently being an open to the public community centre.....
As I understand it at least in Wales councils aren't allowed to make a profit from parking charges so as long as they're washing their own faces theres no need for consultants.
X million to maintain each year match this versus the income plus a percentage surplus. Job jobbed, where's my few hundred thousand?
X million to maintain each year match this versus the income plus a percentage surplus. Job jobbed, where's my few hundred thousand?
tele_lover said:
Council spending should be scrutinized by an independent body and any wrongdoing should result in pension amounts being removed or criminal prosecutions.
We pay way too much council tax.
The whole concept of local government should be dissolved and handed to civil servants. We pay way too much council tax.
I've yet to see a positive change introduced by a local authority - all I see is "You can no longer do this" and "You now need to do XY and Z before you can do A" and "Yes your journey time will increase, no we don't care that this change adds 2 days in the car a year, for every commuter on this road"
Dissolve the lot, put all the money into people who maintain infrastructure rather than spunking it on useless vanity schemes, and only when every mile of road has been resurfaced, every bush picked of litter and every gutter cleaned, start to think about "improvement" projects.
NuckyThompson said:
As I understand it at least in Wales councils aren't allowed to make a profit from parking charges so as long as they're washing their own faces theres no need for consultants.
X million to maintain each year match this versus the income plus a percentage surplus. Job jobbed, where's my few hundred thousand?
ok, you are bringing back memories, they had a run rate of tickets and so there was a need to keep this achieved as those numbers were baked into the operational model and the money was needed. Therefore, the targets were there to bring in revenue, if they needed to, they would have to hunt down more opportunities earlier in the month to ensure they hit their revenue targets. X million to maintain each year match this versus the income plus a percentage surplus. Job jobbed, where's my few hundred thousand?
Matthen said:
The whole concept of local government should be dissolved and handed to civil servants.
Dissolve the lot, put all the money into people who maintain infrastructure rather than spunking it on useless vanity schemes, and only when every mile of road has been resurfaced, every bush picked of litter and every gutter cleaned, start to think about "improvement" projects.
Exactly. Or just get Amazon to run it. Or Tesco. Or any competent organisation with a proven track record.Dissolve the lot, put all the money into people who maintain infrastructure rather than spunking it on useless vanity schemes, and only when every mile of road has been resurfaced, every bush picked of litter and every gutter cleaned, start to think about "improvement" projects.
Matthen said:
The whole concept of local government should be dissolved and handed to civil servants.
I've yet to see a positive change introduced by a local authority - all I see is "You can no longer do this" and "You now need to do XY and Z before you can do A" and "Yes your journey time will increase, no we don't care that this change adds 2 days in the car a year, for every commuter on this road"
Dissolve the lot, put all the money into people who maintain infrastructure rather than spunking it on useless vanity schemes, and only when every mile of road has been resurfaced, every bush picked of litter and every gutter cleaned, start to think about "improvement" projects.
and the civil servants will be better?. They have political beliefs of their own, you just won't be able to choose who is nominally in charge. I've yet to see a positive change introduced by a local authority - all I see is "You can no longer do this" and "You now need to do XY and Z before you can do A" and "Yes your journey time will increase, no we don't care that this change adds 2 days in the car a year, for every commuter on this road"
Dissolve the lot, put all the money into people who maintain infrastructure rather than spunking it on useless vanity schemes, and only when every mile of road has been resurfaced, every bush picked of litter and every gutter cleaned, start to think about "improvement" projects.
JagLover said:
Matthen said:
The whole concept of local government should be dissolved and handed to civil servants.
I've yet to see a positive change introduced by a local authority - all I see is "You can no longer do this" and "You now need to do XY and Z before you can do A" and "Yes your journey time will increase, no we don't care that this change adds 2 days in the car a year, for every commuter on this road"
Dissolve the lot, put all the money into people who maintain infrastructure rather than spunking it on useless vanity schemes, and only when every mile of road has been resurfaced, every bush picked of litter and every gutter cleaned, start to think about "improvement" projects.
and the civil servants will be better?. They have political beliefs of their own, you just won't be able to choose who is nominally in charge. I've yet to see a positive change introduced by a local authority - all I see is "You can no longer do this" and "You now need to do XY and Z before you can do A" and "Yes your journey time will increase, no we don't care that this change adds 2 days in the car a year, for every commuter on this road"
Dissolve the lot, put all the money into people who maintain infrastructure rather than spunking it on useless vanity schemes, and only when every mile of road has been resurfaced, every bush picked of litter and every gutter cleaned, start to think about "improvement" projects.
Then, when the country is tidy, we can look at a proper consultation system that allows the public to say no, and forces respect of that decision. That in and of itself should stop most of the crackpot schemes.
xx99xx said:
From the council website:
"the total contract value capped at £20m over the full term, with any further phases subject to future decisions. In line with best practice, the contract is expected to return between £2.50 to £3 for every £1 invested."
Yeah for the consultants, anyone that has ever had any dealings with consultants knows that you're paying for someone to come in to look at your watch so they can tell you the time. "the total contract value capped at £20m over the full term, with any further phases subject to future decisions. In line with best practice, the contract is expected to return between £2.50 to £3 for every £1 invested."
Saleen836 said:
Not my local council but next county, I'm sure there is logic in there somewhere to be paying almost £20m on external consultants to show how to save money
https://www.frometimes.co.uk/somerset-council-to-s...
I've been involved one way or another in the tools of saving money since I started at Coventry Polytechnic in 1985 on a course in Manufacturing Engineering. We were taught about lean and six sigma before it was called that. https://www.frometimes.co.uk/somerset-council-to-s...
Then I worked within an internal consultancy within Lucas Industries where lots of young ambitious clever graduates were sent out on task forces to do Manufacturing Systems redesign. Later I did a Green Belt and a Black Belt with American Parent companies and up to 5 years ago sold myself as an improvement consultant. I found the transactional world more difficult than the manufacturing world, because there's more smoke and mirrors.
About 5 years into this I bought a book https://amzn.eu/d/0cZINvx4
For £35 it tells how simple reducing cost is.
In a few words Get down to the basics. Analyse every task. Is it adding value or not? TIM WOOD.
Big consultancies just use Six Sigma and Lean and Agile and all the buzz words to make it so much more complex...
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