twowheelsgood

I've read this post and you've repeated the gist of this notion several times - sorry, I just don't see it. Councillors role is not to be so enmeshed with Officers that they are having to take decisions every day - that is an Officers role. Councillors are supposed to deal with over arching policy and sub-divisions of that, not signing off a pavement to be dug up for a gas leak - that's just absurd, and I don't believe it happens. Of course, there will be situations arising when a committee chair or cabinet member will have to be contacted at short notice, but ordinarily, you are paying some well qualified officers some extremely high salaries to do the day to day running and that is what they should do. Your proposal smacks of old school labour control freakery, and look at the mess that's landed us in.

They'll be appealed and they'll win and they'll go for costs* which you and I will have to pay. Why can't councillors realise that they can't stop the flood, indeed have no good grounds to stop the flood of applications, because their forward planning office (take a bow Mr Ashcroft) has messed around for years on end and failed to produce the required plans. At huge cost, the council are now employing consultants to do the work. *As an indication, the council have just lost an appeal in Villa St for just 3 flats and had costs awarded against them for £5.5k. So, even at say £1k per dwelling, we'll be looking at £195k plus legal costs ... Ironically, the scheme at Marden was by far and away the worst. Urban tat in a rural setting.

Recommended for approval, 135 dwellings, likewise yet another scheme for 60 dwellings in Bartestree and 16 more in Marden. Oddly, the agenda shows the meeting to be at Brockington, yet yesterday the Council issued a press release to say Brockington was now closed for business. I think they need a highly paid PR person - oh wait, they've got several ...

Mr Dearing is now a Consultancy Partner at Ameo. Here we go ... 'Ameo is a niche interim management consultancy specialising in project and programme management for business change and transformation initiatives. As a Partner at Ameo I lead our advisory services team and work with our customers to unpack and achieve their transformational goals.' If he's unpacking them, who packed them in the first place and why ...?

Except that Santander are the worst bank ever in the history of banking, and that’s saying something. I'd rather set fire to my meagre pile of savings in front of the nearest branch (is it still in Broad St? I don't care) than hand over a single penny piece to them. Had many happy years with them as Abbey National and then it all went t.ts up … Lloyds TSB, another bunch of highway robbers - I had to sit in the St Peters Street branch for three hours whilst they refused to hand over MY money when I wanted to close my account due to their rank incompetence - said they didn't have the cash (and it wasn't very much)!

To quote the wiki link above "Category management is a retailing and purchasing concept in which the range of products purchased by a business organization or sold by a retailer is broken down into discrete groups of similar or related products; these groups are known as product categories (examples of grocery categories might be: tinned fish, washing detergent, toothpastes). It is a systematic, disciplined approach to managing a product category as a strategic business unit." Last time I looked, local government was NOT a retailing and purchasing concept, nor a strategic business unit. Even less so the Adult Social Care and Public Health departments. Public servants keen to hold onto their jobs are redefining their roles, wrapping them in impenetrable jargon, once again failing to knuckle down and just do the the clerical jobs they are paid (rather well) to do. Anyway, isn't 'development of lean procurement systems and processes' and similar nonsense what we're paying Hoople a fortune to do?

Not a clue what a 'Category Manager' is or does, and none the wiser for reading the following (written by the jargon machine I suspect), but it pays a good wedge ... what would 'a range of employee benefits' include do you think? Job description Salary: £44,344 - £49,365 Per Annum Hours: 37 per week Herefordshire Council’s Commercial Services team are seeking 2 category managers, one on a permanent basis and one on a fixed term basis for 12 months, to drive innovative Commissioning and Procurement strategies and deliver increased improvement and efficiency from the authority’s commercial activities, specifically focussing on Adult Social Care and Public Health. Reporting to the Head of Commercial Services, you will work with key stakeholders across the authority to develop and deliver a portfolio of category strategies. In addition, you will also support the delivery of a number of cross-cutting initiatives, including the development of lean procurement systems and processes, improved management information and market intelligence, plus, a capacity and capability building programme which will include the delivery of a council-wide internal training and development and a range of strategies to support local trade and voluntary sectors. A centrally-led approach to Contract Management is also a major theme for the team. Herefordshire Council offer a range of employee benefits and a Relocation Package may be available to the right candidates. Closing Date for Applications: 7th September 2014

Yes you're right, it is SO basic, yet it is seemingly impossible for tiers of management to do it right when a simple team and foreman managed it to a very high standard pre-privitisation. It would be VERY interesting to compare pre-privitisation of the parks and Highways team with post sell-off to Balfour and see who does what now. After all, the parks and verges have not changed in area, neither have the roads changed too much. The basic mechanics of grass cutting and highways manintenance are unchanged. What has changed will be the management/worker ratio and the overall costs of a very basic service.

If it's dead, who killed it and why? As if we didn't know the answers.

Noted that the Council just couldn't let the chance go to screw some more parking money out of punters - signs up in the City car parks today saying 'normal parking charges apply on a Bank Holiday'. Gaol Street had 4 cars in it, so that worked well.

Fortunately you can't libel the dead, which is just as well, reading your first sentence. What pray is a 'green crayon merchant'?

Whilst POPLA appears to be a quasi-judicial service, it has no statutory status. It was established by the British Parking Association (BPA) and is funded by the parking industry. It is operated independently and administered on behalf of the BPA by London Councils, who already provide statutory tribunals for parking, traffic and other enforcement. They handle over 600 appeals a week, which is rising rapidly as the word gets out about the shysters operating these scams. Corporate Services had 68 appeals registered against them with POPLA from 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014, of which 10 were allowed and 38 refused with presumably the balance rolled over to the next year.

Poor example - statutory undertakers do not need the councils express permission to open the highway, particularly when there is a gas leak.

Bloody madness - and once that is done, they are going to cut it again to 900 watts in three years time. Of course, if we weren't in the damned EU thing it wouldn't matter a jot ...

Propaganda and spin as ever from HC. It may be 7 months work, but the bridge has been closed for several years (but not closed enough to stop the odd cyclist ...) - a terrible dereliction of duty by the council and a massive inconvenience. A FOI request about the true cost of these works might make interesting reading, given that it goes right back to Amey's involvement, who, I understand, forestalled works with the inevitable endless and expensive ecological surveys. As the whole thing was eventually subcontracted to Owen Pell, a more than capable local civil works contractor, it begs the question, yet again, why do we need BB just to add their 25% or more mark up onto someone else's work, and for what?

Bodge and get paid 3 times instead of once - now, who else in Herefordshire has that business model ...

Another issue that has come to light via a friend, who lives in a flatted development - a conversion of a large listed building - they presently have large Sulo wheelie bins for their rubbish, into which they put their black bags. These are contained in an enclosure. When they go fortnightly, they will need twice as many Sulo bins - who will supply these and where will they go? Will the Council supply them and will they also pay for an enlarged enclosure - which would need planning permission and listed building consent?

It's only a matter of time before this happens, following which there will be cost cutting and dumping of unprofitable departments, with 'Living Places' no doubt first in line. And then where will be ? It'll be the Jarvis/Amey stitch up all over again. Or do the sensible (and cheapest) thing and revert to direct labour? http://www.adjacentgovernment.co.uk/housing-building-construction-planning-news/balfour-rejects-carillion-takeover/ Carillion by the way are currently claiming £1.3m compensation from Edinburgh City Council after bad weather prevented the Niddrie Burn Restoration Project from completing on time … yes - builder sues council for allowing bad weather.

I'm sure they must have a jargon machine for writing this sort of effusive, buzz-word laden twaddle, 'to successfully ensure the delivery of outcomes'.

Yes. There has been a long stated need for a new Police station in the City - Bath Street is no longer suitable. I read a report a little while ago, but can't find it just now - it was highly critical of the Council for messing them around over a long period. They still have the training field off Widemarsh St, and this is where they want it, but the Council have other ideas (but won't be pinned down on any of them). In Bromsgrove, they've built a shared premises with the Fire Brigade, but they've made it clear that won't happen here (guess they couldn't play nicely together), and this was also confirmed by the fire brigade rep at the recent consultation. Bill Longmore - what is the point again, exactly?

What was his response? Coming up for a year now ...

Venns Lane is way, way worse than Folly Lane - it too has been marked out for repairs, but whether this will then include resurfacing I don't know. Lets hope they clear the blocked gullies at the same time.

Which they must shortly move out of as the lease expires and won't be renewed. The Bath Street station is too small and no longer fit for purpose (despite the 'stop gap' £8m extension to the side) and they should have been moving into a new police station built as part of something called the Edgar Street Grid, but they didn't allow for the endless obfuscation up at Brockington Towers. Now that the asset strippers have left town with a bag of our cash and a 250 year lease on a hugely valuable town centre land, progressing the 'civic quarter' and other such worthy projects seem to have been quietly dropped by our Council. No surprise there.

Complete nonsense, and I would hope that you know it. Even a casual glance at the Council's 2014/15 tax leaflet shows that Council Tax funds only 25% of spending, with government grants making up 32% and the Dedicated Schools Grant for 2014/15, excluding amounts going directly to academy schools, a further 23% (£75.4m). We were told (by Councillors) that things would be very different when Amey went - they are - they're much, much worse now. You'll have to try harder than that to convince the electorate you're worthy of our vote ...

There is something desperately wrong with the system - those who administer it and those responsible for it (councillors, we are looking at you) - when a gang has to drive 150 miles to cut our grass (and even then, not very well)- where's the eco-brownie points in that? I've just come back from 2 weeks cycling in Gwynedd - perfect roads, all the verges and grass neat and tidy, open and free toilets everywhere, very little litter, beaches litter picked and bins emptied every day. How do they manage this? Gwynedd has 20,000 less population than Herefordshire, yet is huge - almost the size of Luxembourg. It is a Unitary Authority, the same as Herefordshire, with the same 10 man cabinet system. Two reasons why I think they manage it; 1. There is no Hoople, Balfour Beatty, Herefordshire Housing, Halo, Severn Waste Management, Skylon and all the other 'outsourcing' on a hollow promise to save us money, whilst sucking tens of millions of pounds out of the county and into private pockets every year. It's all direct labour and boy what a difference. 2. There is not a single Conservative councillor - just imagine that! Crossing the border on our return, we instantly had to assume the 'I'm not drunk, just dodging the potholes' position, which, on the A44, starts literally as you pass the ridiculous 'hereyoucan' sign. What a desperate state we're in.