ARE THEY DROWNING, OR WAVING?

When the going gets tough and the way ahead calls for judgements from council bosses; many of whom are obviously operating beyond the level of their ability; naturally it’s not surprising that councillors and managers, fearing the limited depth of their capabilities could possibly put their lucrative income in jeopardy, will look to set-up a fall-guy; - someone to blame when it all goes disastrously wrong.

It comes as no surprise therefore, that Tameside Council bosses, appear to be up to their old tricks again. This time they are attempting to plant the seeds of discontent into the minds of Tameside residents by shifting some of the blame for the councils future budgetary cutting decisions onto totally unqualified members of the public who have been beguiled by Cllr Quinn’s seemingly innocuous invitation on his 'blog' to attempt to ‘Balance the council’s books’

If you don’t know by now, the council wants to hear your views on how to manage the cuts to their budgets that have been imposed by the Government. In particular what you believe are the priority services where the remaining money should be spent.

To do this, they have developed a 'budget simulator' that allows you to try and balance the budget for yourself. 

As you remove money form a particular service using the sliders, notifications appear to give you an idea of what impact each change would have.

This practice is typical of career politicians who have lost the valuable perspective of the person on the street. Their long entrenchment playing ‘who can get on as many committees’ as possible, means they seem to have contracted a debilitating inability to think “radically” and come up with a bout of new ideas.

If you take the opportunity to access the ‘Budget Simulator’ you will find a section entitled: How we can bring money in. And it reads: We have a number of ways that we can generate money. Choose how you would like us to bring money in. It offers 3 options. Increase fees & charges by 5%. Release more land for business development and Increase the number of new homes being built.

Is that it? Are those 3 options the only opportunities these Council Bosses and 57 councillors can come up with collectively?

No mention of utilizing their assets and manpower (not selling them off) No creative ways of making profits. No cutting out the vast waste? (For instance: There’s a small park in Hollingworth, on the corner of Woolley Bridge Lane and Mottram Moor, whose ‘Christmas Lights’ have lit up the trees each evening from Christmas 2013!)

No mention of stopping spending money on cosmetics and vanity projects (Like the £2000 for two new trees to be planted outside Hyde Town Hall! – How is this a priority?)

And so it goes on with each section of the ‘Budget Simulator’ offering limited options of areas of expenditure/savings, as identified by ‘the council’ - which means anyone attempting to ‘balance the books’ purely using the options on offer will of course find it difficult, if not impossible. 

An outcome these council bosses want you to conclude to justify their political mantra.

Let us not forget that councillors and council bosses are bound by a Code of Conduct which requires them to act selflessly, objectively, within the law and to give assurance for the proper use of public funds and assets.

If they find that task too much for them, they should resign and allow someone more adept to fill the position.

I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it,
there's no way you can prove anything! 

At last count, I believe that a couple of thousand people have attempted to ‘balance the council’s books’ – approx 0.9% - a small percentage of Tameside residents.

Once the consultation closes in mid-December 2014, we are told that the council will analyze the responses from the budget simulator will be taken into account when preparing the budget for 2015/16.

So, mark my words, next year, at the first signs of trouble over daft decisions that they may make, or a service that will be chopped, they will point to the public’s response gained from their ‘budget simulator’ and in an attempt to avoid any responsibility, blame the public, saying “Well …that is what you asked for!”

Where, oh where are the wise-thinking councillors with vision, common sense, forward planning and radical ideas?

I kid you not, Bart Simpson could run the council more efficiently than the people we have currently put in charge. 

And when you watch the colloquial soap-opera treatment of the second series of the BBC’s ‘Call The Council’ - Tameside must now be the laughing stock of the UK!