Bleak outlook; or no outlook at all?
January 19, 2013 4 Comments
I have already written about some of the proposed cuts to the local Borough budget. Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has to save something like £10million, and so cuts are inevitable. What now follows is the debate about where to cut, and the proposals will be where the debate starts.
Here are some selected highlights, if that is the word, from the proposals.
(CL9) £70,000 Early Years SEN Delivery Structure
(CL22) £13,000 School Uniform Grants
(ETE18) £27,000 Development Control Planning Letters
(ETE20) £130,000 Events
(ETE23) £50,000 Close Pier Mon & Tue Off-Peak
(SS3) £167,000 Customer Services
(SS15) £15,000 Outlook Magazine
There is a whole lot of interesting detail in the draft budget, far too much for a site like this. The budget will alter in the coming weeks as the detail is raked over and discussed in the various council committees.
I will add one thought for now. The last item listed above is a saving brought about by reducing the number of Outlook issues from four to three in a year. I would go further here and scrap the whole thing. Given a choice between the magazine or a supply of black bin sacks I reckon I know what the majority of council tax payers would opt for.
Bleak. Grim. Depressing. And how will the electorate consider the decision of the council to spend £77,000 on installing technology in the council chamber so that a few people can remotely watch council meetings?
Helen they are spending £20000 on the CCTV. The remaining £62000 is to be spent on updatiung the audio which needs to be completed by law.
delthomas: I am not sure that is true. The audioloop (or whatever it is called) is already there and therefore satisfies any requirement. It may be in need of an upgrade, but that could wait. It may be more accurate to state that it comes from a different budget, but the detail will be lost in the arguments over spending on what is essentially a vanity project versus something that everyone in the town benefits from.
Delthomas. Minutes of the Economic & Environmental Scrutiny Committee 20/09/12
“Subject to tender the total cost of the solution for year 1 would be
approximately £77,000 split between a £62,000 one off capital cost capital (for
the provision of the audio equipment) and an annual recurring revenue
implication of circa £20,000 which includes the leasing of the cameras
(including maintenance and upgrades), software licensing, project and account
management, full hosting of all content, and SBC staff time.”
Whether you quote £77,000 or £20,000, I’m pretty sure the people of Southend would prefer to continue to receive a supply of black bin liners than watch live council meetings.