Death and Council Tax

By johnp2010 | Thursday, January 05, 2012, 12:51

In 1817 Benjamin Franklin re-used a previous quote originally written by Daniel Defoe and said "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

Many things have changed since 1817, but death and taxes have certainly survived!!

This week saw Shepton Mallet Town Councils annual fist fight over the budget and precept, to be fair, this time things were dealt with fairly amicably and entirely predictably, more of this later. The whole process set me thinking as how it is possible that a small group of people, from a small town in Somerset, with, well lets be charitable, honest intentions for the good burghers of the town, can have such wide ranging views on just about everything.

For the rest of this story read this weeks Shepton in Blue.

http://sheptonconservatives.blogspot.com/2012/01/death-and-council-tax.html

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Comments

You should be able to find everything that you need regarding the Business Case, maintenance requirements, costings and savings here: http://tinyurl.com/7cjpna4

By johnp2010 at 18:01 on 09/01/12
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Inaccuracies to start with.

(1) This is not a waste of money, it is an invest to save project that has a independently verified business plan that will acheive lower costs for all of the partners over an identifiable timeframe.
(2) The building infrastructure requires tens of thousands of pounds of investment over the next few years to prevent the buildings becoming unuseable, it is no good waiting until they start to fall apart, before acting, prventative maintenance is required immediately.
(3) The IT infrastructure requires considerable investment, again this is urgently required to enable cost effective services to be provided.
(4) There are temporary buildings on site that can be dispensed with after the project is complete, thus saving the rental.
(5) In reply to Mr Selby, the staff to be relocated at Shepton are very unlikely to be relocated from Taunton, it is more a consolodation of various satellite operations around the district.
(6) There is no District Council family silver being sold off to make this happen.
(7) The Police have already announced that Shepton police station will be closing, this project will enable a conitnued police prescence in the town.
(8) The savings accrued will enable BETTER front line servoces, the project will not rob the front line of money. It is a true win win for all of the partners.
(9) People are not being "forced" to work remotely, many officers already spend much of their working week away from the office in any event. The IT investment will make all remote workers much more effective, with less need to return to the office to type up reports etc. This saves travel with the associated saving in travel cost. The vast majority of officers that took part in the remote working trial much preferred it. By changing the way that the office areas work, much free office space can be released to the partners.

The full business plan is an enormous document, far too much to cover everything on here, you are obviously interested in the project, can I suggest you actually read the business plan, and you will be able to clearly see why this is being done, and the massive savings that will accrue.

By johnp2010 at 17:52 on 09/01/12
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By the way John, You say there are a number of 'inaccuracies' in my previous posting but you can't specify one, other than misquoting me and disagreeing with me.

By Anthony62 at 16:22 on 09/01/12
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So for clarity John, are you saying that 'there will not be a cost to the public purse' AT ALL?
If not where is it coming from? Presumably by diverting funds from frontline services and SELLING OFF ASSETS. Or is it borrowing or digging into reserves? Either way this can hardly be seen as an investment in the future of front line District Council services when those that work there will be fragmented working at home. Its nigh on impossible to get hold of officers now!
We are not talking 'several thousand pounds' here, its a cool £2.6 MILLION and
I did not say the offices are in GOOD condition, just reasonable, ie they are serviceable. I see part of the 'essential' £2.6m is for washing the outside of the roof!
I'm all for making assets work to optimum efficiency but this looks like a disorderly shambles trying to sell off the family silver and ignores the long term requirements for office space. I fear we will pay heavily for this in the long run and although I have not seen the business plan, making a profit in 7 years is just long enough for the current people responsible to have shuffled off. Why make such a dodgy investment with our money in the midst of this financial crisis?

By Anthony62 at 16:15 on 09/01/12
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I agree with Anthony, the buildings in Shepton Mallet are in pretty good condition & really don't NEED that amount of cash spending on them. There is no attempt to be frugal in the cost reports. You say that other services will be located there but what happens to the old Police Station if they move in? Another building left to rot or a public asset sold? What about the staff who currently work in Taunton, they'll have to relocate to Shepton Mallet, so they will pay more for commuting.

Capita are a private company who seem to have threatened the Council if they are forced to move out "Capita believes that there are operational benefits to having its staff located with Council staff..... Capita highlighted a risk that the 50 job positions related to non-Council business may be moved elsewhere if the Council felt that they could no longer support them from an accommodation perspective." But Mendip Council staff are to be forced to work from home.

By JamesTSelby at 14:59 on 09/01/12
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