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Jobs to go in effort to keep your council tax bill frozen
Labour attack ‘right-wing double standards’ budget as redundancies due to rise
THE job loss count at the Town Hall is due to rise to at least 260 posts, finance chiefs have admitted.
Scores of staff will be axed as the Lib Dem and Conservative alliance bear down on freezing council tax in next year’s budget, an election manifesto pledge.
Senior officials have cleared the way for more than £1 million to be spent in paying off staff with fixed contracts.
But they hope the job cuts, some of the most far-reaching ever seen at the Town Hall and amounting to six per cent of all staff, will bring in total savings just shy of £8 million.
In a budget announcement on Monday, the Town Hall also revealed plans to cut specific after school and holiday play services, jacking the price of surviving facilities up.
Recycling collections on council estates and late-night street cleaning in Camden Town will also be pulled.
The cost of meals on wheels dinners for the elderly will rise.
Lib Dem treasurer Councillor Janet Grauberg said frontline services would not be affected and that the savings drive was just a case of being more efficient – in many cases using better technology and computers.
Instead, in Monday’s briefing, she said that Labour had been lazy while in power and were “arrogant and cavalier” when spending public money. She repeated her surprise that one consultant had been paid more than £800 per day – revealed in a New Journal exclusive last month.
Cllr Grauberg said: “There have been lots of surprises. There were managers who had discretionary budgets that were not being used. There were projects that have run for 20 years just because somebody knew someone. They would say ‘I know them, they are alright and sign off the spending’.”
Speaking at the same briefing, Cllr Keith Moffitt said: “It wasn’t corruption. Maybe more like cronyism. We are not suggesting staff at the council have been lazy. More that their political masters were lazy and were not checking whether all of the spending was necessary. I think the council now has a different atmosphere. People are excited by the changes.”
He added: “It is good that people stay and work for Camden for 30 years but there is a trend for council staff to move around more. They go to different authorities and pick up different tricks and move on.”
The job cuts are being wrapped up in buzzword terms such as “management de-layering” and “workforce remodelling”.
No exact figure on redundancies has been given and council chiefs say they will try to re-deploy affected staff to other areas of the council.
But further jobs are likely to be cut the following financial year when the council aim to find another five per cent saving in employment costs.
Conservative councillor Andrew Marshall said: “A lot of the job descriptions are quite narrow, people working in small teams. We want to get away from that.”
Chief executive Moira Gibb said that morale among staff had not dropped and that employees had been shown why the Town Hall was making the changes.
Labour leader Cllr Anna Stewart said: “We were not lazy, we believed in preserving front-line services. We were commended for the value for money we provided and John Mills (ex-Labour councillor), was widely regarded as being prudent in his management of finances.”
She added: “What is being proposed is a double standards, right-wing budget of cuts. That wasn’t what people voted for.”
Zero per cent Council Tax? How?
• JOBS:
260 council posts are due to go.
Unions estimate higher figure.
• SERVICE CUTS/REDUCTIONS:
Recycling collections on council estates.
Enforcement initiatives in the planning department deleted.
Slash street ‘gully cleansing’ team.
Play centres and after school clubs cut and reduced in Kilburn and Regent’s Park.
3am street cleaning in entertainment hotspots such as Camden Town and Covent Garden to be cut.
Reduction of posts in Youth Offending Team.
Schools music service under review.
Grants to voluntary services still facing the knife.
Boulevard project scaled down.
• PRICE RISES:
Meals on Wheels dinners for the elderly to rise by 50p each.
Surviving play after school and holiday play schemes to be more expensive.
Cemetery charges up.
More expensive fees for pest control.
Higher fees for hiring out the Camden Centre and other council buildings.
• COUNCIL TAX:
Frozen. Zero per cent increase on last year’s bills. |
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