Saturday 18 December 2010

Their Contempt For You Is Bottomless…

Pity poor Northamptonshire County Council, deep in the financial mire:
About 600 people are set to lose their jobs at the council as part of plans to save £68m in 2011 following a cut in government funding.
Well, you won’t need that ‘Recruitment & Training’ post you’re advertising then, will you? And probably not the ones in ‘Customer Service’ either.



Because your idea of ‘customer service’ is…well, let’s hear it from one of your councillor’s own mouths, shall we, when she was asked about dirty road signs?
Heather Smith, responsible for transport and highways, was speaking on BBC radio.

She said residents should go out with a bucket and sponge.

"Is it too much to ask for somebody to go out with a bucket and a sponge in their hands and clean that sign?," she said.
Yes, Heather. Yes it is, actually.

You see, it’s what the people of Northamptonshire pay their council tax, business rates, road tax and fuel tax for, not to mention income tax and VAT.

And if you send out crews to clean road signs, well, what’s the betting there’s all sorts of regulations, safety clothing, risk assessments involved. Yet you expect the residents to do this for you, for nothing, with none of that, and presumably no corresponding cut in the money they pay, should they be stupid enough to take up your kind offer?

So yeah, on the subject of those job cuts, I'm with The Moose.

Luckily, because Bob Ainsworth has opened his trap about legalising drugs, your own little faux-pas is likely to go unnoticed. Otherwise I might wonder if it’s ‘too much to ask’ that the voters toss you out on your spoiled little rear…

H/T: Old Holborn via Twitter

6 comments:

Quiet_Man said...

Loads of things could go, diversity co-ordinators, anti-racism committees, translation services etc.

Could save a fortune, but in reality, they don't want to save us money, they always want more.

Rob said...

Is it really too much to expect the council staff to get off their arse and do it themselves? Do the job we actually pay them to do?

Rob said...

Quiet Man:

Those things will be the last to go, as they are political. First to go will be frontline services which do not specifically target approved minorities.

sign o' the times said...

There are way too many road signs. Such as 'Changed priorities ahead' and, I believe, signs in the middle of nowhere telling the odd passing driver who maintains the highway. Like we care.

Time to remove the signs and then they don't need to be cleaned.

But as for us doing it we already dispose of our waste personally if we have too much to fill a wheelie bin. We also put lights outside our houses in case the council-funded street lights don't work.

But we have no say in their lunatic love-a-multi-culti plans and recruitment schemes.

WV: pratro = the association of idiots employed by government

Charles said...

Actually, Julia, you are wrong on this one (a rare occurance, I grant you)

Saying "the government should do this simple thing because I pay my taxes" is what got us in this psychological dependence in the first place.

Far better that someone should take pride in their village or town, ignore any health & safety regulations and go out with a bucket and sponge to clean them

JuliaM said...

"Loads of things could go, diversity co-ordinators, anti-racism committees, translation services etc."

As Rob points out, they will be the LAST to go, if go they ever do.

"There are way too many road signs. "

Agreed. Now's the time to declutter, and use this excuse!

"Far better that someone should take pride in their village or town, ignore any health & safety regulations and go out with a bucket and sponge to clean them..."

Except as Rob points out, we pay them to do this - will we get a reduction in our council tax, if we do it ourselves? Unlikely...

And look what happens when people do as you suggest and 'ignore H&S'...