A council was criticised today after it drafted in a team of top consultants to rebrand a museum in Bristol - and they came back with the idea of reusing its original name.Which, knowing local councils, probably means it cost £200,000 and they are desperately trying to find some way to hide the other £100,000.
The project currently has the working title the Museum of Bristol, but when it opens in 2011 it will be called 'M Shed', the historic name of the harbourside building.
Residents today vented their fury at local reports the rebranding exercise reportedly cost £100,000. But Bristol City Council has so far not confirmed the cost.
Still, don't think these consultants didn't work hard for their money - it apparently took them months of 'meetings, brainstorms and site visits'...
And are the council contrite? Don't be silly:
Today the council defended the bumper payout and claimed the name 'demonstrates the direct relationship' with the museum's past.Well, it could hardly do otherwise, could it?
But why do they waste public money on these modern-day snake oil salesmen? Are council employees incapable of deciding on a name? Are they incapable of organising a public contest to name the thing?
The utter waste and stupidity makes you gasp doesn't it? Didn't it occur to them to ask the public for ideas?
ReplyDeleteIt is their museum after all.. and it wouldn't have cost them anything!
Whoops, that would involve democracy and denying some jobsworth his monthly share of the loot... silly me!
Filed under Council and Democracy
"Looking at today's papers I think we made a bit of a boner with this deal, Leader".
ReplyDelete"Abona!" You've hit the jackpot with that one, my boy. Now where did I leave the Council's cheque book?
Well, I'm guessing that it has a lot to do with the mentality of the people who 'aspire' to jobs in the Council. Everything has to be done 'properly', you see, as if the LA was the regional flagship private enterprise. It makes them feel that their jobs are real managerial jobs when they can throw money at something like this. Of course, they aren't real jobs, and what proportion of council 'managerial' staff could actually hold down a real job is unknown.
ReplyDeleteOne of the greatest lunacies that beset this lunatic land is that there is no means by which to hold public servants privately responsible for the worst acts of waste.
Why shouldn't the Director of Museums, or whoever, be forced to reimburse the public purse for egregious nonsense like this?
"Whoops, that would involve democracy and denying some jobsworth his monthly share of the loot... silly me!"
ReplyDeleteAll we need now is to find out the company had some relative on the council. Honestly, would anyone be surprised?
"Now where did I leave the Council's cheque book?"
Lol!
"It makes them feel that their jobs are real managerial jobs when they can throw money at something like this. Of course, they aren't real jobs, and what proportion of council 'managerial' staff could actually hold down a real job is unknown."
Let's hope they get to find that out soon...
They are spending other people's money. Of course they are going to squander it.
ReplyDelete