Tag: Amtec Consulting

The Amtec Contract

This is the original Key Decision where control of the Council was handed over to consultants. It’s the one mentioned by Barnackle Bill on this post.

It’s reproduced here for ease of access, and because the original archive version has major formatting issues which make it mostly unreadable. The original can be found at the following web address:
http://www.peterborough.gov.uk/council_and_democracy/democracy/decisions/executive_decisions_archive.aspx?apk=1873

It is to be hoped that there can be a constructive discussion about this decision, right here on this page, around exactly what has been agreed, what the effect has been, and whether actual benefits have accrued.  One can but hope.
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Green Backyard and Seeding Futures – Updated

A recent commenter worries about Green Backyard and Seeding Futures, the latter having received £6,000 capital investment from Council in January. Seeding Futures are based at the hospice at Thorpe Hall, where there were previously some good things, including a small plant centre often useful. Let’s hope this is the start of a Council-funded revival.
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Use of Consultants – Council Statement

08:35 Friday 25th March 2011
Peterborough Breakfast Show BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY GALL: Yesterday we brought you the outcome of the inquiry into whether Peterborough City Council is spending too much money on consultants. The three-man panel made 31 recommendations to the Scrutiny Committee, and called for the process of hiring consultants to be made more transparent. PCC couldn’t put someone up to talk to us, because the report will be discussed at a Cabinet meeting in June, but they did send a statement.

VO: “Peterborough City Council has some of the best controls in the country for managing and monitoring its use of consultants. We are already implementing many of the recommendations in the report as part of our drive for greater transparency, and ensuring we are always providing the best value for money for our taxpayers. Over the past 4 years we’ve been able to take £68 million out of our budget because of this work. We’d like to thank the consultants who’ve worked for us in the past, and those who continue to work for us, for sharing their expertise with our staff to enable us to improve the skills and knowledge we have within our own workforce.”

ANDY GALL: And in today’s Evening Telegraph you can get Council Leader Marco Cereste’s thoughts and comments on the report.

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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

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.
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Peterborough Childrens’ Services Poor

John Richards came on the radio this morning to explain why OFSTED gave Peterborough City Council a “poor” rating for its Childrens Services.

Here are the extracts from the OFSTED report that relate to the failings:
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Where Peterborough Council Spent the Money

The next post will be delayed until this evening (edit: make that midnight) due to constant power cuts in Peterborough.

Something to be going on with is a list of all payments made by Peterborough City Council during the year which seems to be 2008/9
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Use of Consultants: November Update – Playing for Time

Back in March Cllr Fletcher posed a series of questions about who got paid what and when for consultancy services, believed to be up to £12 million a year.
Here is an extract from the Agenda Reports Pack for the upcoming meeting of the Sustainable Growth Scrutiny Committee for 9th November 2010 at 19:30pm. It is an outcome of sorts.
None of these specific questions have been answered in the report, but named councillors have apparently been given access to a great deal of information which they will be required to examine. The answers should be in there somewhere, and we the people must wait for enlightenment until 1st February 2011, maybe longer, but a mighty long time anyhow. But they still haven’t answered the questions.
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