Reform is reporting £331 million in savings across the councils it runs, but Private Eye’s Rotten Boroughs writer Saba Salman says the claims are complete guff. In Kent, the party’s flagship council, supposed tens of millions in savings include cutting councillor allowances only to reallocate the money elsewhere. Watch the full episode of Page 94, the Private Eye podcast, on YouTube.
HIGNFY "Following an investigation in the aftermath of the Budget, we now know how the Economic and Fiscal Outlook was leaked: "The EFO was uploaded by the OBR on a PDF via a URL". With the investigators all agreeing: OMG, FFS"
I was ok with the original concept because it is a pointless waste of time and money to hold elections to cover a 1-2 year gap. But now the Councillors (at least current HCC ones) will be on a 7 year term, time to bite the bullet.
Don't really see it, under the original plan it was a fair point and would have been a genuine waste of time and money to hold an election for a seat that is being dissolved in 1-2 years time, but now it is stretching too far. Also many of the affected Councils are Tory anyway. I suppose the counter might be that Councils have now submitted their plans for restructure and it is too much of a pain in the balls to risk having Councils rebel against plans that they previously approved (although I am not sure that is really possible either).
Going to flip on what I said earlier. Councillor elections are still going ahead. It is the new mayoral positions that are being pushed back. I dont think there is as much of an issue with an election being pushed back for a post that doesnt exist yet, since I assume this is because the actual start date of the new role has been pushed back a year.
