County councillors criticise Eric Pickles over local authority funding

11:13am Tuesday 29th January 2013 in News

ANGRY councillors have criticised the Government for “patronising” town halls by the way the cuts in local authority funding were announced.

In a debate at Worcestershire County Council, councillors said they were tired of the “continuing targeting of local government” by local government minister Eric Pickles.

Wyre Forest District Council will see a larger than expected 9.4 per cent cut in funding in 2013/14 followed by a 16 per cent reduction the following year.

In comparison, Worcester City Council face a 19 per cent cut and Wychavon will see a 22 per cent decrease over the next two years.

At the time of the announcement Mr Pickles published a booklet listing ‘50 ways to save money’ for town halls.

During a meeting of full council, the Liberal Democrat group put forward a motion criticising Mr Pickles.

It said: “The further reductions in funding for local services comes on top of the unprecedented cuts councils already have to implement.

“It is bad news for local services and for early intervention and it undermines the role councils can play in promoting economic recovery.

“They deserve better than this patronising booklet on 50 ways to save money.”

It also said delaying the settlements by a fortnight until six days before Christmas reduced the standard six-week consultation period to four and that as it fell during the festive period councils had less time to respond.

During the debate Liberal Democrat county councillor Sue Askin said: “I recognise the need to save money, but I am tired at the continuing targeting of local government by Eric Pickles.”

The motion was agreed but both Labour and the ruling Conservatives decided to add the name of MP Don Foster to the motion, a Liberal Democrat who helps out in the department.

Comments(18)

FlipC - The Mad Ranter says...
3:03pm Tue 29 Jan 13

For those who want a good laugh you can see for yourselves the amazing "50 ways to save" http://bit.ly/XIU5eE


Stop paying for things twice (4); replace council cash offices with the local post office, you know the ones that keep getting closed (15); stop translating documents and force these foreigners to speak English (34); use your protected position to shill for businesses (36) cancel the blinis at meetings (39) turn yourselves into a business (46)

A scary mix of naivety, Conservative (business) policy, and sheer contempt.

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jon cooper says...
5:34pm Tue 29 Jan 13

"Councillors said they were tired of the “continuing targeting of local government” by local government minister Eric Pickles.

I'm tired too: I'm tired of local authorities of the likes of WFDC who in times of clear austerity blow millions upon millions of pounds on unnecessary public buildings, (and against the majority of public opinion), whilst previous neglected properties are now lying empty. In the case of WFDC; they are urged - year in, year out - to reduce their own over inflated allowances to bring them into line with the local average, and continually reject the pleas of the IRP !

Typically, certain local authorities will continue to put their heads in the sand regarding the realities of the neverending economic situation; and predictably it'll be 'Joe Public' who will suffer the most from government cuts that these local authorities are now bleating about.

As far as i'm concerned, there is little difference between the financial housekeeping of the national government, and towards the mentality of local government. There is sheer hypocrisy on show of the desire to impliment cuts onto the humble taxpayer, whilst at the same time our 'public servants' spending culture is wayward and out of touch to say the least !

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Cynical Sid says...
7:20pm Tue 29 Jan 13

1. Close subsidised council canteens

Subsidise council canteens!!! Pickles should take note of his very own subsidised restaurant next time he and his chums are chomping on Sea Bass or Roasted corn-fed chicken breast.

Compare what MP’s pay

http://alturl.com/sd
dkc

to what their visitors have to pay in exactly the same restaurant

http://alturl.com/o5
fv5

Slobs the lot of them

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Jerome K says...
8:18pm Tue 29 Jan 13

Some people on here still fail to get it, clearly falling for Pickles' agenda hook, line and sinker. Individual cases of irresponsible spending are irrelevant to Pickles, his agenda is to carry on handing down over the top reductions in funding knowing full well that the buck for over zealous spending cuts will fall on Councils rather than the national government. It also means that services will be cut and the role of Councils reduced which is also part of the government ideology. WFDC and the rest can reduce their allowances stop building white elephants and the massive cuts in funding will still keep cutting until the public services are run on an absolute shoe string.

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Stephen Brown says...
10:48pm Tue 29 Jan 13

At least Mr Pickles biscuit allowance is on the increase = up £10k a year, making £20k alone last year on biscuits in his department.

The guy is a disaster, a paid Tory party official since his young days despite his elected status, caused havoc at Bradford Council, manipulated control of it to avoid being ousted by using and abusing the mayors vote and seat. The man knows or understands nothing about democracy and cares even less for it so long as he can retain his position. A career politician of the worst kind living in a cabinet den of millionaire champagne charlies.

It's no surprise the country is in a worse mess now than it was 3 years ago when they took office. They don't have a clue. Even the Tory lot in local authorities have realised - but that's got more to do with saving their own necks with looming county elections that any fundamental disagreement over ideology.

Fact is, with fewer and reducing council services, probably all outsourced to the private sector on minimum wage, something all tory (not just them tho') councils have signed up to over a number of years - not just since 2010 - we won't need so many councillors. They know it, we know it, so expect to see some fractures developing in party unity as they realise the game is up and they scrabble around trying to justify their role.

The real sadness is that in a few years time people will realise what a disaster it has all been, as one scandal after another is revealed, in the provision of essential council services outsourced to their private sector mates. At that point it will all turn full circle and their grand private experiment will be undone but at what cost?

Have we really all forgotten the lessons of pre-war Britain so readily?

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jon cooper says...
11:20pm Tue 29 Jan 13

It appears that some amongst us are more than willing to go down the dangerous path of trying to guess what may or may not be going on in a politicians head; or to speculate what agenda a politician of the likes of Eric Pickles might have.

It certainly isn't speculation that Eric Pickles and the Ministry for Local Government are highly critical of many local council's; be they Conservative controlled - or whatever - who have questionable spending cultures. So to play the speculative game; perhaps Mr Pickles can see how much public money is being spent in Wyre Forest and Worcestershire: Perhaps he can see the facts that our councillors, (Wyre Forest), are pocketing a well above average allowance despite pleas from the IRP to reduce them in a volunteer capacity. Maybe the savings that WCC and WFDC have boasted about achieving
in recent times, alongside their rather irresponsible spending culture, has made Eric Pickles think that the local council's that serve us in Worcestershire could in fact take a greater reduction in government cuts then the less affulent local authorities in the UK ? Maybe the irrational behaviour of our local councils have shot us all in the foot, and yet again it is inevitable that the public at large will suffer for it !

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Stephen Brown says...
1:17am Wed 30 Jan 13

Worcestershire is consistently in the bottom 5 of funding for LA's so far as I know. I would not call it a more affluent authority than elsewhere therefore.

It's 'leafy' bits could give a misimpression overall to govt ministers, it has some serious areas of deprivation (kidderminster included) albeit in the districts but of course there is county spending on adults and childrens services that count in this equation. Gloucestershire, so far as I am able to ascertain, with similar demographics, recieves considerably more funding overall, millions more, at one point it was over £23million more on basic central govt grants.

I don't think Pickles has singled our area out for any 'special' treatment, or our councillors, they get by on very little comparatively despite some of the issues of allowances and bad financial decision making we rail against, which is not unique to our area. There are historic factors that have resulted in this poor funding thanks to their dumb actions in the Thatcher years - which was a 'shot in the foot'.

It's Pickles ideology that is the problem for me along with his rank hypocrisy. And in that there is sufficent evidence, in my view of course, to justify what I feel about him with a degree of certainty. He can indeed be judged by his actions.

I don't often agree with the decision makers at county hall because they do make some woeful decisions sometimes (a whole other thread on finances etc) and push the envelope of truth, but when it comes to overall funding for worcestershire, they do actually have a valid point about the cuts and disproportionate levels incurred here - and I know that this has caused them to complain to Pickles and quite rightly too.

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Gobby Robby says...
9:28am Wed 30 Jan 13

Well said Stephen. It is obviously Pickles who's the problem, a man so morbidly obese through gluttony rather then from any other mitigating factor has no right to lecture anyone on 'cutting their cloth' :-)

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Jerome K says...
11:51am Wed 30 Jan 13

"It appears that some amongst us are more than willing to go down the dangerous path of trying to guess what may or may not be going on in a politicians head" - yes you are, by speculating that Pickles is targeting WCC because of its 'irresponsible spending culture'. This isn't born out by the facts when frugal councils such as North Yorkshire are hit by over zealous cuts in spending. As Stephen has said ever since Pickles was head of Bradford he has made his name through attempting to reduce the role of councils. This is what he's doing here under cover over 'necessary cuts'. It's so obvious what's happening.

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jflawson says...
1:56pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Having just lost lost the vote on boundary changes,the blue party i believe are on borrowed time.
I think all the people in Worcestershire
should at least realise that Mr Cameron
and Mr Pickles dont give a stuff about the peopled in the Shire Counties and hopefully can start in May through the ballot (please please please at least vote)make a major step to getting rid of the Blues and elect a more caring and considerate group of county councillors
who will the the mess these two MUPPETS are inflicting on all of us.

jim lawson

ICHC Member&

Rock Parish Councillor

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jflawson says...
1:58pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Should read have to clear up the mess these two MUPPETS are inflicting on all the people in Worcestershire.

jim lawson

ICHC Member

Rock Parish Councillor

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jon cooper says...
5:27pm Wed 30 Jan 13

Maybe when Councillor John Campion, Ian Miller and Mark Garnier MP tackle the Ministry of Local Government, (as they have before), as to why Wyre Forest has had such an extreme cut in funding, then perhaps they could be accompanied by the residents who also believe that the arrogance of our local authorities have nothing to do with it. In fact was any explaination delivered by WFDC last time when Pickles' department was questioned by Messrs Campion, Miller and Garnier ?

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Jerome K says...
10:45am Thu 31 Jan 13

WFDC isn't the only council to indulge in questionable spending, it could well be that Finepoint can easily be justified to the Council's political masters if they can show that it will save money in the long term. As for councillors allowances, they may be claiming too much but that hardly comes close to covering the cut in funding. So it's hardly likely that Pickles will be singling them out, especially in light of what other councils get up to. But as this is speculation then it's obvious you're of a like mind with Eric Pickles, or more likely just a stooge of Eric Pickles.

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FlipC - The Mad Ranter says...
12:44pm Thu 31 Jan 13

As an aside I think all here know my love of statistics; so to remove the percentages and get a better look at things let's switch to per capita.

Wyre Forest - £78.07
Worcester - £62.65
Wychavon - £64.23

A little more telling than 16%, 22% and 19% respectively.

As a pure observation the top 13 councils on cuts per capita basis are all Labour controlled. 14th is NOC and then all Labour until our first Conservative at #20.

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Gobby Robby says...
1:35pm Thu 31 Jan 13

Labour Councils have the highest outgoings as they usually govern the poorest areas. This is yet another example of the government taking from the poorest thanks to Pickles and his supporters. With todays announcement of council tax relief being scrapped on the poorest and the cut being handed down for local govt to implement this is another example of Jerome K's point. I confidently predict Poll Tax riots part 2....well probably not, people will just roll over as usual.

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FlipC - The Mad Ranter says...
2:42pm Thu 31 Jan 13

Now then Robby I'm sure it's pure coincidence that the top 10 cuts happen to contain the 6 most deprived areas in the country and that they all happen to be Labour controlled; and that the areas with the least cuts per capita happens to contain the 3 most affluent areas and are all Conservative controlled.

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Gobby Robby says...
4:30pm Thu 31 Jan 13

Blimey, that's even worse than I thought! I wonder if other countries in western Europe have this blatant class divide? No chance of you coming out with some stats on that Flip? Probably not easy to come by.

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neilhar says...
10:33pm Thu 31 Jan 13

"or to speculate what agenda a politician of the likes of Eric Pickles might have."

I'd wager as many pies as he can get his grubby obese fingers on for when he's finished his £20,000 biscuit aperitif.

Protest isn't far away if you read the Guardian...

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