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”
Tag: Consultants
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:
Continue reading “Peterborough Childrens’ Services Poor”
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”
Deputy Chief Executive Peterborough City Council
The post of Deputy Chief Executive at Peterborough City Council was ended in March, around about the time when a question arose about individuals holding both salaried posts and consultancy roles within the Council. The post was vacated in March, in the financial year 2009/2010.
DARREN: I can refer back to when we used to have this position of Deputy Chief Executive, which was the first time we’d ever had it. Our group campaigned to find out exactly how much the chap was getting paid. We were told that we couldn’t be told this, because it was commercially sensitive, and it would cause all types of problems. We obviously didn’t rest there. We continued to fight. We got the result. And it was quite an impressive amount of money that one chap was getting for a job that wasn’t previously required.
Meanwhile, everyone is waiting to see whether savings will be made at the top of the Council, as opposed to sacking workers from the frontline.
It is noticeable that recently, in the context of making savage cuts to the Budget, defenders of the cuts may be tempted to quote the scrapping of this role as a budget saving, an example of Council making savings at the top as well as at the bottom of the heap.
But the role was vacated in March with a pledge it would not be re-filled for three years.
“An in-depth inquiry should be held into the circumstances of the Deputy Chief Executive post as some members did not feel that the published figures were correct. The arrangements for the Deputy Chief Executive post would be ending by 31 March 2010 and the Chief Executive was proposing that the post would be vacant for three years. If members wished to undertake an inquiry, the Executive Director would put together clear terms of reference for the remit of any inquiry.” Council Report 1 Medium Term Financial Plan 2010/11-2014/15 (note: 247 page 1.6mb pdf file)
No-one can therefore decently claim this as a recent top management saving within the context of the budget cuts required by the Comprehensive Spending Review.
Stewart Jackson 07:40 Monday 1st November 2010 Peterborough Breakfast Show BBC Radio Cambridgeshire:
“It’s not fair to just look at that, and not look at where the Council have also cut. It’s fair to say they’ve also cut the budget for the Deputy Chief Executive post, they’ve cut the budget for Your Peterborough, they’ve cut the budget for Neighbourhood Funding. They’re intending to do a lot more outsourcing. So the idea that they’re just cutting vulnerable people’s services …”
Probably just a slip of the tongue there, quoted out of context. But it does show you have to be careful. This is not a cut dictated by the Comprehensive Spending Review.
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.
Continue reading “Use of Consultants: November Update – Playing for Time”
Marco Cereste on Budget Cuts for 2011
Peterborough Council Leader Marco Cereste looks forward to the expected cuts in central government funding, confirms that £12 million is a huge amount of cash, and pins his hopes on more housebuilding, Government grants for social housing, and the consequent increase in the ratepaying population, together with inward business investment to help boost the Council’s coffers, alongside some talk of renewable energy. Continue reading “Marco Cereste on Budget Cuts for 2011”