Tag: Mike Fletcher

Mike Fletcher on the Use of Consultants Report

08:13 Thursday 24th March 2011
Peterborough Breakfast Show BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY GALL: 31 recommendations have been put before Peterborough City Council, after a report was produced into the authority’s use of consultants. Opposition politicians were concerned that spending millions of pounds on them was too much money. The report was commissioned after Councillor Mike Fletcher complained that the Council was spending too much on consultants. And Councillor Fletcher was at the meeting last night, and joins us on the line now. Good morning Councillor.
MIKE FLETCHER: Good morning Andy..
ANDY GALL: You wanted answers regarding consultants for some time. Continue reading “Mike Fletcher on the Use of Consultants Report”

Loose Ends

As we await the final publication of the Council’s Review into its use of consultants ..

Extract from an interview with Cllr Mike Fletcher November 10th 2010 titled:
Call for Minister to Intervene on Consultant Secrecy.

MIKE FLETCHER: I doubt it. There might be a report, but I’ll bet these questions aren’t answered, such as who determines what rate is paid, who actually hires these people. And yesterday I saw again we’re hiring consultants to look into whether we need travellers sites in the town. (LAUGHS) And so it goes on.
PAUL STAINTON: And we smile at this, and we’re smiling this morning, but it’s serious business. This is our money, isn’t it. Millions of pounds of our money.
MIKE FLETCHER: It is. And when this comes up in group meeting or committee, some councillors grin, and snigger, and think it’s funny. Well it damn well isn’t funny. And I’m absolutely beside myself with rage over this.
PS: There’s sniggering going on is there?
MIKE FLETCHER: Oh yes. Yes. From fellow councillors, snigger and grin, and think, hello, here he goes again.
PS: Well I’m glad they think it’s funny that twelve million pounds of our money could have been wasted. I’m glad they find it something to snigger about.

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Extract from Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald’s Twitter account dated November 9th 2010

“Police panel meeting went well then went for some entertainment at town hall listening to Cllr fletcher speaking always fun.”

Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald

 

Interesting Times

Council Calendar:
7pm 16th March 2011: Sustainable Growth Scrutiny Committee
7pm 23rd March 2011 Sustainable Growth Scrutiny Committee – EXTRAORDINARY.

Report on consultants delayed.
THE results of a study into Peterborough City Council’s spending on consultancy have been delayed until next month.
An independent task group of councillors has been reviewing the amount spent on consultants since it was set up in March. (2010)
The group had planned to present its findings at the Sustainable Growth Scrutiny committee last night but this has been put back because the review has been expanded as “other lines of enquiry have been identified”.
Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Thu Feb 03 2011

Peterborough City Council Consultants “on £1,300 a day”

07:08 Friday 4th February 2011
Peterborough Breakfast Show BBC Radio Cambridge

PAUL STAINTON: A report into Peterborough City Council’s use of consultants has been delayed again. It was due last November, then again this week. But it’s findings have now been pushed back to mid-March. The review started after local councillors expressed concern over the authorities’ £6.6 million spend on consultancy, over a period of nine months in 2009. Councillor Mike Fletcher submitted questions about consultancy use to the Council last January, and they still haven’t been answered. He’s with us this morning. Morning Mike. Continue reading “Peterborough City Council Consultants “on £1,300 a day””

The Peterborough City Council Consultant Spending Report Saga

An extraordinary series of delays are leading some to conclude that Peterborough City Council is stalling on delivery of its report into the massive amount of money it has been paying to a group of consultants.
Continue reading “The Peterborough City Council Consultant Spending Report Saga”

Nick Sandford on Missed Deadlines in Consultant Inquiry

Back in January 2010 Cllr Mike Fletcher posed a number of questions to Peterborough City Council relating to the amount of money spent by the Council on consultants. In March a Committee was set up to look into the matter. They were due to report back in September. This was put back to November without notice, and now they have produced an Interim Report stating that the questions will be answered in February 2011. Liberal Democrat Cllr Nick Sandford is a Member of that Committee, and he tells the BBC what progress they have made.
Continue reading “Nick Sandford on Missed Deadlines in Consultant Inquiry”

Call for Minister to Intervene on Consultant Secrecy

Back in January questions were asked by the Chairman of the Sustainable Growth Scrutiny Committee about the full extent of Council’s financial involvement with consultants, said to be twelve million pounds a year and rising. A report was promised in June, then again in September, then again in November, and now the answers to those questions have been put back to February of next year.
In the meantime the Chairman has been ousted from his post. Today he gives the BBC some more details of his cause for concern, including the fact that consultants have been paid one thousand pounds a day. The constant reluctance on Council’s part to deliver the information requested has prompted him to join with MP Stewart Jackson in writing to the Minister for Local Government to ask him to act to get to the truth about the issue.
Continue reading “Call for Minister to Intervene on Consultant Secrecy”

Peterborough News 10th November 2010

A summary of the Peterborough Breakfast Show from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire broadcast from 06:00 to 09:00 on Wednesday 10th November 2010.

Topics:
Investigators into the multi million spend by Peterborough City Council on consultants, in an inquiry originally launched in March of this year and promised by September, defend their decision to delay publishing their findings again, for another three months, until February 2011.
The ousted Chairman of the Scrutiny Committee wonders why after almost a year he still has no straight answers to his questions about Peterborough City Council’s use of consultants.
Peterborough City Council is one of the local authorities planning to turn off street lighting to save money.
Continue reading “Peterborough News 10th November 2010”