DESPITE MY Conservative roots, I always feel devastated when I read about people losing their jobs for any reason – never mind austerity. In a town that depends so heavily on public sector employment, it is even more depressing to see that due to Blackpool Council’s reckless spending, it has blown the coffers just like Gordon Brown did on a national scale and more jobs are in the firing line.
You might remember a few months back there were up to 200 jobs to be culled in order to save £3m per year. Peter Callow then came out and said;
The number of people losing their jobs through compulsory redundancy has been reduced to around 80 posts, which is a much more positive picture for the authority as a whole, but it is obviously of little consolation for the hardworking staff that will unfortunately find themselves out of work as a result of these cuts.
Unfortunately this positive picture is about to invert to a stone cold black and white redundancy letter for another chunk of town hall staff. Callow now admits that the reduction to just 80 compulsory redundancies in July was only a short term measure paid for out of council reserves;
The Council had to take tough decisions on jobs earlier in the year and I was put under pressure to use reserves to save these posts for a few months.
If I had allowed reserves to be used then, the Council would not have this money to fall back on now and we would be facing even bigger job losses as a result.
If you had used the reserves then, it would mean would be that more people were made redundant now. The council has in my view messed about with peoples’ hopes and fears, spinning the story to give a false dawn to those people that had initially worried about being given the boot only to cruelly switch the lights off on their town hall careers just a couple of months later.
According to the local paper the jobs are set to be axed due to a ‘massive’ drop in car parking revenue, the cost of free bus travel for pensioners and an increase in referrals to childrens services, yet despite these minor financial hits, the council has hosed millions of pounds on huge projects and found a spare £5m to loan to the Pleasure Beach.
It is reported that no council executive officer has received a pay cut or P45.
loading…
Spot on Phil,Callow is a disgrace,he has to go,NEXT ELECTION.
But look at whats happening at BAE (300 jobs) and the Civil will get hammered in October.(100s more?)
Regeneration is finished, welcome to Blackpool Ghost town.
loading...
Will you be standing against Mr & Mrs Callow then in Norbreck Ward? PS they have the biggest majority of any Ward in Blackpool, why do you think they grabbed Norbreck when they live near Stanley Park.
loading...
I think the only way the Callows can be deposed from power is if all the marginal seats that the Tories bagged last time – even wards like Anchorsholme – gain new colours, removing the Tory majority and hopefully rotating the council leader to someone that makes future proof decisions and works to a real masterplan for the town, not just some 100 page consultancy crap that boils down to ‘Lets not bother investigating any possibilities for regenerating the town centre and instead allow Kensington a free reign to develop anywhere they want’.
loading...
Quite happy to see the Lib dems in,Jon Bamborough is the man to sort out Blackpool.
loading...
No I wont, I live in Wyre.lol
loading...
Out of 324 areas,(1= most resilent,324=most vulnerable), Blackpool is 303;ie very vulnerable.
The town is well and truly fucked………..BIG TIME.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11233799
loading...
The socialist argument that you should pay public sector staff large salaries out of decreasing taxes so that they can spend them buying goods to stave off a recession is a terrible one that just doesn’t work because the money has to come from somewhere. So in principle I can see some job cuts being necessary. But there shouldn’t be staff that are surplus to requirement employed on anything other than short-term contracts anyway. A new computer system say will require temporary staff to make sure it is implemented well – but when you’re in a recession we shouldn’t be making improvements out of taxes we just aren’t going to get because less are working. What is amazing though is that £5 million can be found to lend to the Pleasure Beach to support some seasonal jobs for Eastern Europeans (with admittedly some benefit to knock-on related businesses such as hotels, B&Bs etc.) – whilst we are laying off town hall staff which either we never needed in the first place or who are providing a service we still need.
I wouldn’t want to see a jerk-kneed reaction to lay off an officer as well to show we’re all in it together. Fylde has shown that when this happens, the salaries of those taking over “their responsbilities” increases despite them working exactly the same hours. Then you see the very same officer sneeked back in on temporary contracts to do exactly the same thing he was doing before – probably at a higher salary to reflect his lack of job security and the whole exercise including the redundancy cost the taxpayer a lot more than just leaving the situation as it was.
loading...
Another pathetic argument that makes my blood boil is the old ‘We need high salaries to keep us from going into the private sector’ or ‘You need to pay top rate for the best people’, but Cavill, Weaver and co are not the best people for the job, its like Roy Fisher getting the NHS Blackpool post because of his political links not his [lack of] talents. The reason these useless men get public sector jobs is because they are largely unemployable in the private sector, Fisher in particular.
loading...
Having nobody at all would be fine in my books.
loading...
TB I am surprised you havent done another article about our so called justice system.Go to the Gazette website and see that thug attack that bloke with one punch killing him;he only got 6.5 years;its sickening to watch,poor bastard never had a chance,the force he hit him was unbelievable.
loading...
I agree completely Harold it is a total disgrace, I was considering doing an Injustice system Vol 2 article but I am on nights this weekend so I am worn out at the moment. I might do one tommorow or Monday maybe.
loading...
“The socialist argument that you should pay public sector staff large salaries out of decreasing taxes so that they can spend them buying goods to stave off a recession is a terrible one that just doesn’t work because the money has to come from somewhere.”
Keynesian economics not socialism not an ideology but a economic opinion which has been shown to work during a recession.
loading...
This is a totally totally outrageous!
How can Peter Callow say more jobs are to be cut when he has given £5m to the Pleasure Beach, £2.5m for two new slides at the Sandcastle and £800,000 for Cllr Ian Fowler and Cllr Sue Fowlers run down property.
That’s a whopping £8.3million they could have used to save local jobs! Now I know the previous Council was bad but they never ever did anything is outrageous!
This has just got me so angry and I feel for many of my friends and family who work for this bias Council who only look after there mates and tourism rather than the people who make Blackpool what it is and pay there Council Tax!!!!!
loading...
Fowlers got £180,000 for their property on Crystal Road, not £800,000!
loading...
I don’t mind the idea of getting rid of superfluous council jobs per se, but having read Alan Cavill’s latest ‘defence’ of the high number of vacant retail properties in Blackpool, I have to ask i) is he performing his role well and ii) if not, why are we still employing him? It isn’t out of the ordinary to remove lower and middle tiers of staff when costs are looked at in any organisation, but considering that we are the ‘stakeholders’ in this council, we should re-examine what its priorities are.
He can supply all the ‘context’ he wants – it doesn’t change the facts offered independently.
The money from his role would be better spent amongst the retailers of Clifton Street, I reckon.
loading...
Alan Cavill is totally and utterly useless and not worth a penny of his huge salary. He is just like Weaver nothing but a total pessimist who has no belief in Blackpool, he constantly talks the town down. Why in god’s name should someone like him be charged with responsibility for our town’s regeneration when he has no interest or belief in the town. Also worringly in the unilkely event Weaver stepped down, Cavill would be probably be one of the top contenders for the job.
loading...
Well said TB, get rid of them both,useless leeches that they are!
loading...
Apologies i thought it was £800,000. Well still £180,000 is still a huge amount of Council Tax payers money!!!
loading...
Callow and the present council have to go but they won’t because people do not see the difference between local elections and nation ones.
loading...
vert true Interested.
loading...