Stop the cuts demo

Up to now unless things change there will be a Stop the Cuts protest at the Town Hall on the 29th can you make it? I don’t think you will see may Tories or Liberal Democrats there so come along and offer your support. It could be your job Next

Just met with the Salford Green party executive.

Funny the wife made way tonight for us all to come to my house,it brought back happy memories of the early days with the Liberal Democrats.We all squeezed in for two constructive hours mapping out the next couple of months.I looked around the room and felt that same buzz we got in the early days with Kerry Holt in Worsley,every one contributing to the end result, all i can say is i look forward to the future.

Ask your self a question

What would you say if you were on budget scrutiny and  a senior treasury officer said.We are now asking staff to bring in receipts when they claim petrol because as a council we can now claim the VAT back. Good idea? of course the question is how were they claiming for petrol before. Something else that worried me was the comment about how do you separate the petrol receipt from your mileage and the council mileage.Just bring in the one receipt, i thought no would that not allow you to claim more Vat than you were entitled?

Coun John Warmisham, of the city’s ruling Labour cabinet, said: “People might be willing to give up an hour’s pay if it means saving jobs.

Well John perhaps if you and others within your group were on a basic wage, fighting to live and watching others within the council getting fat on the land would you give up your pay? no because it’s easy when you are not in that position. Perhaps we should discuss the waste within council before we start to cut the wages of others. This Council is bleeding itself dry with the number of high paid staff, many who have to use consultants to perform there tasks ,they are getting high salaries off the back of city residents and are inept at there tasks, The budgets within council take a battering every year, one of your own departments  Children’s services was a shambles, Regeneration as been suffering, Council tax write offs, rents to the courts, Buildings laying empty properties sold for peanuts. Long term contracts for markets that lose Thousands.PFIs ask Bill Hinds his view on the subject of PFIs.How about the Six million pounds on sick pay? Car user allowances,mobile phones etc etc.

Other suggested ways of saving money include the introduction of car parking charges for staff and the removal of an essential-user car allowance

Three years ago while i worked as Cllr Norman Owens Budget spoksmen this was one of my suggestions to save money,the staff would not loose out they would  save under a ruling called salary sacrifice, Merry scoffed. And now they look at bringing it in. This is the Real problem with Salfords Labour Council thay don’t listen to ideas that are floated by opposition Budget spokesman but the idea is on record and Cllr Merrys negetive responses. When the full effects of this budget From the CON’dems hit Labour will have no place to hide and then the people will decide who was right or wrong. 

This off todays MEN. if i had not read it i would have not belived it.

Town hall staff may be asked to work for nothing to save jobs

Salford council is proposing staff work one hour a week for nothing to save cash and prevent compulsory redundancies.

A town hall document obtained by M.E.N. Media says it could potentially save the council £4.4m a year with no loss of productivity.

The Reality is this council waste so much money that can be identified and put in to place without job loss. Will Barbara Spicer or the highly placed officers work for nothing? no. Will the Labour members give up their executive support roles? no. Will we still see the ice rink and Merry s stupid paper yes. The list could go on. But still Labour are voted back in. A message to the people of this city Labour have failed and the Tories and Liberal Democrats feel that the polices of slash and burn will work, there is an alternative to this crass stupidity.

Just had a call of our chairman over some case work in Langworthy

It looks like he has got things moving, we are meeting tonight with members of our executive to tie up a few loose ends.It should be a good win if he can pull it off.

Good day yesterday i went with some of our Members to visit the Swinton Open Space FunDay,great to see so many people there.

A better place to live?

Can you tell the difference between which pictures came from Langworthy or which came from Broughton? should we in 2010 expect residents to live in these conditions?Labour have failed, Media city grows and the outer boundaries lay rotting,we need policies that will attract full investment,or do we just pander to the BBC? when i took these pictures i felt sad that so many people have been forgotten under this Labour regime.

Salford Star: Council newspaper costing £27,797 a month – what impact on local news?

Figures released by a Freedom of Information request made by the Salford Star suggest that Salford Council’s Life in Salford magazine is costing £27,797 per month, the title reports.

The Star asks what the production of the magazine and the council’s expenditure on it mean for local news outlets – the Salford Advertiser has recently withdrawn free home delivery from more post code areas, while the Star “struggles to get back into print”:

While the Salford Star and the Salford Advertiser are only available free online, an estimated two thirds of Salford’s population do not have access to the internet.

The only free printed information people are now getting about their city comes courtesy of Salford City Council and its Life in Salford magazine. With no criticism of the Council, no debate, no accountability, low quality content and bucket loads of public money showered all over it…

You have seen the story any body wish to sign our petition to get rid of one more of Merry s white elephants.

All i can say is long live what ever is left of the free press.