Council Watcher
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It is also about using information that is readily available as stated previously. In respect to open spaces they have already taken budget cut decisions not to cut the grass as often — does that mean they don’t know whose grass they are cutting.
BenjaminM – you have put a sting case forward for consultants but their are two end of the equation when the work of a consultant can become ineffective and certainly not value for money.
1. The Officers drawing up the specification dont really know what they are looking for so the tender becomes very woolly and does not bring the desired results.
2. If it is a report by experts then why are these often completely overlooked when assessed by the ‘inexperienced/lack of expertise officers’ and Council Members.
I accept your view about them being experts but without the knowledge to understand their reports internally within the Council they become worthlessWrexham Council must have been sprinkling Miracle Grow on the land in Wrexham if it has changed since they mapped all the space, community assets, playgrounds, youth centers, schools and other assets owned by the Council and other agencies 5 years ago.
All of this was mapped out on a series of overlay GIS maps on software that was supposed to be state of the art for the time.More recently the same information was updated for the Local Development Plan that was subsequently thrown out by Welsh Government.
The culture has developed in the Council that some senior managers only accept work that has to have their personal name on it hence the resins so much is being contracted a fresh – work undertaken by other professional staff/managers in the Council will not be acknowledged or utilised.
Council Members are being made fools of by authorising work that is not needed.
Remember one of these consultants reports stated that Plas Madoc Leisure Centre had a first floor that was not compliant with DDA access when it had a lift!!
How much are they going to end up paying PWC consultants to find more mega savings — report due in July. Are we nit already paying senior management to make these assessments? Is this not the same Council who say they are big enough to stand alone and not merge?
Bringing in consultants for one off pieces of work from a business perspective would be fine — Wrexham Council however use them as a matter of course for virtually everything.It is going to be interesting to see how candidates in next years Assembly Elections are going to get their message out with the Leader newspaper almost dead. Social Media will have a limited reach and without any National newspaper in Wales the prospective politicians are going to have a limited appeal whuch may result in very low turnouts
