Councils take aim at Pickles’ patronising pamphlet
0Derbyshire County Council has responded to Eric Pickles’ 50 ways to save booklet with a comprehensive list of all the things it is doing to meet its suggestions.
50 ways to save: examples of sensible savings in local government was issued by the Department of Communities and Local Government on the day of the Local Government Settlement last year. The document “sets out 50 examples of sensible savings that councils could make and contains practical tips and guidance, highlighting ways that councillors can challenge officers to deliver savings and ways that taxpayers can challenge councillors.”
Many of the savings suggestions were seen as less than helpful by local government officers. They included ideas such as: ‘tackle fraud’, and ‘open a “pop up” shop in spare office space’.
Derbyshire’s chief executive said that the local paper asked Derby City and Derbyshire councils for their reactions. “I just wanted to set the record straight for local people,” Nick Hodgson told Room 151. “The pamphlet was patronizing, it did contain some good ideas and it also contained some more stupid ideas. The main thrust of what we were saying was that we have done all this already.”
The council’s response went through every point made in the booklet, giving detailed rejoinders. It describes Derbyshire’s office sharing, pay freezes, an award-winning Big Society programme and selling services among other things.
“It seems a shame that we haven’t got more understanding and support from our government department,” said Hodgson. “For every single point Pickles makes, either we have already done it or it is well on our radar. One of the things that got up my nose was the suggestion that we reduce the amount of first class travel. CLG has reduced theirs to £17-18k per year, well we scrapped first class travel for councillors and officers 30-odd years ago.”
He added: “I am all for fairness and equity, not just within my council, but across the public sector. I’m not sure that health service, civil service etc, are put under this level of scrutiny and deliver the savings that we do.”
