Topic: Peter Mallinson: £6m cuts for the old, but business as usual at the trough

[Geoff Reid]

As far back as January 2006, readers of the Swindon Advertiser were asking:

"Why is it that Swindon Council always proposes cuts in services for the elderly and disabled?

...and today the Adver reveals that Councillor Peter Mallinson, (Conservative, Walcot), is trying to soften the blow from his socially regressive intention to cut £6,000,000 (6 Million) from the Adult Services budget by leading a Tory 'charge' to cut just 5% from Councillors annual allowances.

Coun Peter Mallinson (Con, Walcot), cabinet member for health and adult social care, is putting forward the motion at a council meeting on Thursday.

He said he did not feel he could ask his own department to make savings of £6m this year without doing something himself.

Mallinson continues, (almost breathless with reckless excitement I fancy):

“For backbenchers it will amount to about £1 a day before tax and for frontbenchers it will not be more than £2 a day.

I can't be bothered to work out the 'saving' made by cutting Councillors allowance by such a piffling amount, far better in my opinion that front benchers, (cabinet members), 'work' for nothing more than their basic allowance of £7,790.45 and work urgently towards making significant reductions to the £2,000,000 (2 million'ish) annual wages for the Directors of Swindon Borough Council.

To put Mallinson's motion into it's genuinely hypocritical context, what would readers of TS and Swindon Council Tax payers say if I mention that Mallinson and the rest of Rod's Bluhligans are currently working on plans to actually add another 7 directors to Swindon Borough Council's upper tiers ?



Q: What's brown, sticky, steams in cold weather and smells like bullshit?








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A: Mallinsons latest motion.

[Geoff Reid]

 

additional:

Mallinsons Mate, Finuala Foley, has already started 'managing demand' at leisure centres by cutting pay to staff in her deptartment to induce them to take action:  http://www.talkswindon.org/index.php?topic=6393.msg42386#msg42386

After an appropriate period I imagine Foley will announce that some lesiure centres will close permanently. 


It's all part of the Tories plan to 'increase choice' apparently....

[Richard Symonds]

Mind you at 76 Peter Mallinson could well be in need of the very services he is cutting one day!!

and as for the cuts in allowances he can afford it with all the pensions he allegedly enjoys.

Now as to adding even more Directors they must being going Bonkers in the Bunker again and to pay them will be in command of a fictitious (Army) Workforce

[Richard Symonds]

and I forgot to add that if his fate is not already determined in Walcot next May this will seal it for certain.

Wondered what he had been doing now that Walcot Library activity has diminished?

[Jarvis]

Wondered what he had been doing now that Walcot Library activity has diminished?

Reidy told me that one particular councillor has been bullying cHarming volunteers into paying the utility bills for the enterprise they voluntarily help run.

I immediately thought of Wing Commander Shattering-Buttocks himself, so do you know anything about that Richard?

On 2nd thoughts, don't tell me, tell Reidy  ;)

[Richard Symonds]

I immediately thought of Wing Commander Shattering-Buttocks himself, so do you know anything about that Richard?

Yes I do and for once in my life I am keeping my powder dry until the appropriate moment.

[Geoff Reid]

My door is always open

I'll talk to anyone, me.....

[Richard Symonds]

...and today the Adver reveals that Councillor Peter Mallinson, (Conservative, Walcot), is trying to soften the blow from his socially regressive intention to cut £6,000,000 (6 Million) from the Adult Services budget by leading a Tory 'charge' to cut just 5% from Councillors annual allowances.

Where does this £6m that Councillor Mallinson is talking about all of a sudden come from, as it is my understanding that the the Lib dem Conservative coalition has reduced our funding by a mere £1.4m.  Please do not forget that Councillor Mark Edwards made no mention of this in his fantastic budget so is this deficit down to either Councillor Renard losing the money or Councillor Mallinson losing it since May?

[Mellon]

...and today the Adver reveals that Councillor Peter Mallinson, (Conservative, Walcot), is trying to soften the blow from his socially regressive intention to cut £6,000,000 (6 Million) from the Adult Services budget by leading a Tory 'charge' to cut just 5% from Councillors annual allowances.

Where does this £6m that Councillor Mallinson is talking about all of a sudden come from, as it is my understanding that the the Lib dem Conservative coalition has reduced our funding by a mere £1.4m.  Please do not forget that Councillor Mark Edwards made no mention of this in his fantastic budget so is this deficit down to either Councillor Renard losing the money or Councillor Mallinson losing it since May?

£1.4 mill?.............well thats a definate Bluhpak scenario.

[Mart]

In the bunker vein I recently learned that the recipients of a former bunker inhabitants hospitality were invoiced for the travel to that place of hospitality.

I would not seek to trivialise those events by directly comparing them to present day events in the Borough of Swindon. That would be disrespectful.

I would however draw a comparison between the tortured and twisted thought processes employed. It is as if behaviour that ranges from thoughtless to criminally insane can be excused if proper processes are followed.

You can give me a kicking for the comparison if it is unfair.

It is pretty disheartening to watch and consider that this is, apparently, the best that our representatives have to offer.

[Tea Boy]

7 new Directors eh? what cost is that?

7 CPCP clusters?

A connection?

[Geoff Reid]

7 new Directors eh? what cost is that?

7 CPCP clusters?

A connection?

Could be 

David Runard has picked up this thread:

[tweet]http://twitter.com/David_Runard/status/25121957702[/tweet]

Doesn't tweet much, but when he does it tends to be spot on.

[Drone]

7 new Directors eh? what cost is that?

£500,000 to £700,000 p/a not including benefits, pensions, etc. Are these going to replace any exisiting directorships or are they in addition to our current batch?

[Geoff Reid]

Dunno. The Rodigarch and his Bluhligans are perverse in this respect, so they'll probably increase the number of directorships and axe a few hundred extra real-workers to pay for them. They'll call it an 'innovative and creative new way to do business'.

On the other side of the border, Jane Scott of Wilts CC, is rumoured to be considering axing 250+ managers jobs to protect as many front-line staff as she can.

Prediction: Jane will outlast Roderick.

[Muggins]

Ref 7 clusters,  these are being headed up by 7 already employed people, just 1 day a week or somesuch, added to the work they do already, so no new directors to do this.

Not that will they have too much to do, you find out what's going on in your cluster group anyway and stick a Connecting People badge on it. 

Well, thats this weeks take on it - could learn something new in the course of next week.

[poemogram]

Not that will they have too much to do, you find out what's going on in your cluster group anyway and stick a Connecting People badge on it. 

Well, thats this weeks take on it - could learn something new in the course of next week.

Too true Muggins

A Cluster Badge trumps a Cohesion Badge which had overtaken the Partnership Poppy and the User-Involvement Underliner having trod the Consultation Path for a few minutes whilst forgetting all about Community..as Engaging as we both know it is.

Third Way, Big Way, My Way....Their Way...and so it goes on...

Deckchair Moving that actually creates and sustains a subsiding Titanic Community of Needs

If it were not for the community of ordinary folk, who sport no badges, Swindon would be further down the Swanee than it is

Vivre la Revolutione !

[Muggins]

And I see Cllr Perkins refer to the Swindon Civic Trust as a 'group of private people'.

What else is the council, the cabinet, and all groups in Swindon, public private or otherwise, if not groups of private people. 

It's the bringing together of these private persons as a group with aims and objectives, that turns the group into a legal 'all for one' and a collective action.

What they really want os for all thos private people that come together for whatever cause to disband, go home and hide under the bed, to leave them alone to do exactly what they want .   With this utter conviction that they are the only ones who know best. 

Poemogram the revolution may well start soon...............gathering at a time and place to be announced!

[Drone]

...and today the Adver reveals that Councillor Peter Mallinson, (Conservative, Walcot), is trying to soften the blow from his socially regressive intention to cut £6,000,000 (6 Million) from the Adult Services budget by leading a Tory 'charge' to cut just 5% from Councillors annual allowances.

Where does this £6m that Councillor Mallinson is talking about all of a sudden come from, as it is my understanding that the the Lib dem Conservative coalition has reduced our funding by a mere £1.4m.  Please do not forget that Councillor Mark Edwards made no mention of this in his fantastic budget so is this deficit down to either Councillor Renard losing the money or Councillor Mallinson losing it since May?

£1.4 mill?.............well thats a definate Bluhpak scenario.

The projection over the next three years is that the council will have a short fall of £45 mill. The £1.4 mill is what has been cut since the budget but does not include the likely cuts from the govt's spending review or future cuts to the central grants. Coupled with rising demand on adult social care and housing, decreasing income from business rates, planning and land sales, you end up with this tricky but fairly vague situation.

[Mart]

'We trained hard--but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganised. I was beginning to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralisation.' (Petronius Arbiter, 210 BC).

[Geoff Reid]

Nice one Mart

I'm thinking that what Rod's Bluhligans actually want to save/cut is the projected annual increase in the cost of providing adult services etc, hence the flim-flam and clumsy rush to 'manage demand' of the same.

I'm convinced the civic assasination of the Dial a Ride charity is inextricably linked to the 'managing' of demand for adult day centres and the number of SCS transport staff & vehicles who, (unless they are given Dial a Rides work), will be out of work.

The Rodigarchy is currently considering refusing my FOI request re: the legal advice SBC sought on the grant to Dial a Ride on section 42 and 36 'prejudicial grounds'.

They really do not want people to discover what they've been doing.

I think we will though