Jesus Christ....it costs £50m a year and is paid for by Westminster (look up the Barnett formula...they have to fund each Welsh citizen to the tune of about £8000). The fact there is an assembly makes no difference to how much money Swansea Council receive from central government....it just means certain decisions in Wales are made by Welsh people who we can vote in or out. Abolishing it would save Westminster money not Swansea council. Re: Bap's points Is it me or are the accounts stating that Swansea Council has spent £44m more this year than last and are £200m better off on their balance sheet (probably mostly due to assets being valued higher)? Can anyone tell me which revenue streams are statutorily obliged to be ring fenced for that service area only and what that equates to in terms of the overall budget?
http://www.wlga.gov.uk/governance-in-wales Working with the Welsh Government The terms “Welsh Government” and “National Assembly for Wales” mean different things. The Welsh Government consists only of the governing Ministers in Wales; the National Assembly for Wales consists of all 60 elected Assembly Members (AMs). The National Assembly is the Welsh equivalent to the UK parliament in Westminster, which houses every MP from across the UK. The Senedd in Cardiff Bay is the home of the debating chamber for the National Assembly for Wales. The Welsh Government has a wide-range of powers which impact on local government and the services it delivers. It is responsible for a range of local government policy areas, such as social services, education, the environment, planning, transport, economic development. Critically, it is responsible for distributing Wales’ £15.8billion budget, of which nearly £8.6 billion (2010/11) is spent on local government services. The Welsh Government sets the national agenda for Wales, and whilst setting strategies and key targets, it gives significant flexibility to local government to work within these national parameters. Most of the funding passed from the Welsh Government to local councils is not ring fenced, giving Councils the flexibility to spend the money on local needs and priorities. Councils have direct links with the Welsh Government, via elected members and officers, however, much of the national representation and negotiation over policy development and funding is undertaken through the WLGA. This cross-party organisation, representing all councils, elects senior councillors from across Wales as local government spokespersons to meet regularly with Ministers, other AMs, and civil servants, to ensure local government’s concerns and views inform national decision-making. There is also a statutory Partnership Council between the Welsh Government and local government which promotes joint working, co-operation and informed policy development.
....by the way, I used to work in Local Government (in a role that took me into a variety of departments, 3rd sector offices too) and can confirm that your statement applies equally well to Swansea Council. My abiding memory is the smell of toast and the sound of kettles as I walked into an office, no matter what time of day. I used to sit next to somebody who would spend 3 hours of each working day on *** breaks or errands to the local shop Lots of people repeating over and over again the mantra...."there's not enough funding"...."there's not enough staff"....."there's not enough time in the day" etc. It was the cushiest no. I ever had, and a ****ing great pension....had to get out though as it was sucking away my ambition and natural work ethic (admittedly there are plenty of good people working their bollocks off there too....but nobody could convince me the culture was one that encouraged professionalism and hard work)
Check out Swansea Council's budgets here; http://www.swansea.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=23039 Swansea Council's total spend (since the crash) 2008/9 - £362m 2009/10 - £373m 2010/11 - £385.5m 2011/12 - £385.5m 2012/13 - £388m (the audit committee report states that this turned out to be approx. £400m) 2013/14 - £420.5m (the audit committee report states that this is to be revised up to approx. £440m) 2014/15 - £414.5m (We wait to see what they actually spend) Welsh Assembly support grant 2008/9 - £224m 2009/10 - £231m 2010/11 - £236.5m 2011/12 - £243m 2012/13 - £235.5m 2013/14 - £253m 2014/15 - £241.8m ....and less relevant, but for those who are interested; Council Tax receipts (which, of course, always go up) 2008/9 - £72.5m 2009/10 - £78m 2010/11 - £83m 2011/12 - £86.5m 2012/13 - £87m 2013/14 - £90m 2014/15 - £95.5m So, in 6 years they allowed their spend to go up nearly 25%. In those 6 years Central Government have increased their contribution by 12-13%. Council Tax receipts have risen by nearly 25%.
welsh assembly is nothing but a drain on the welsh economy. It does nothing the welsh office could not do except give far to many AMs a nice little earner...waste of time..
It is a waste of time....because we keep voting the same party into power again and again, so there is no accountability and no fresh ideas regarding policy and how to more efficiently spend our money. It is not responsible for taking resources away from Swansea Council. That's a cop out. My personal opinion is that we shall only begin to take responsibility for ourselves and our futures (as a nation) once we have independence....but if we were to take that road there would be a lot of pain and a lot of hard lessons to learn first. ....what have you been a member of for 25 years Dai? A community council?
I liked this article from "Jac o' the North" which is relevant to this thread - SWANSEA COUNCIL It is with great relish and lashings of schadenfreude I report that civil war has broken out among the ruling Labour group on Swansea city council. Unfortunately, I cannot as yet tell you of any fatalities, but I live in hope. Here is a brief communique. It seems that the trenchcoat-wearing rodomontade (God I”ve longed to use that word!) who has until now directed this farce, one David Phillips, felt increasingly insecure and decided to sack a couple of cabinet members he felt did not worship him as he thought they ought. But now it appears they were not alone, and it may be Il Duce himself who is under threat! Some intriguing comments to the stoBenito Phillips, Il Duce Abertawery on the Evening Post website by ‘pjrpost’ allege wrongdoing by the council’s HR department and a cover-up by the Labour administration. This, again is a story with ‘legs’, so I urge you to keep up with it. Another kick in the plums for the Labour Party is always good news. The reason I’m including it here is because – as regular readers will know – I’ve written about this Labour shower before, many times. (Just type ‘Swansea council’ into the search box at the top of the sidebar.) It is the worst council the city has ever known, not least because many Labour councillors, including the council leader, are strangers to Swansea; they neither know the city nor care about it. Their loyalty is to the Labour Party, and the Labour Party alone. This is the dog-in-the-manger politics we suffer nowadays that sees political parties wanting power not to exercise it on behalf of the people but to keep some other crew out of power. For serving the Labour Party in this way Swansea’s councillors are rewarded by being allowed to pursue their pet issues (using council money of course), be that obsession promoting gay rights, saving the planet, or funding the Cwmrhydyceirw Unicorn Sanctuary. On another level, as I write this the Swans are doing rather well, having won their first two games, but of course the club’s income is somewhat limited by having such a small stadium, which also means that many fans are unlikely to ever see a live game. The stadium should have been extended when the Swans were in the Championship, certainly after the first season in the Premier League. The Liberty Stadium is owned by Swansea council, and you’ll understand why the stadium is not being expanded when I tell you that the council leader, the aforementioned David Phillips, is a Liverpool supporter; one of the council’s representatives on the stadium management committee, Nick Bradley, proudly boasts of his undying love for West Bromwich Albion; while the chief executive of Swansea council, ciggie-puffing Jack Straw (no, not that one), is a Nottingham Forest supporter. This is the sort of thing you can expect when a council is run by a rag-bag collection of drifters, political chancers, students who couldn’t find their way home and single-issue obsessives. Though on the plus side it is rather encouraging; for it suggests that Labour can no longer find local candidates, and has to rely on English immigrants. This is Bangor and Aberystwyth writ large. In this final example we see Wales’ second city being run by strangers loyal to a political party whose only ambition is to keep Wales subservient to England. A gang who then waste public money funding all manner of nonsense but neglect the real interests of a city they don’t understand and people with whom they cannot possibly identify. UPDATE August 28 2014: Disillusioned party members cornered Il Duce this evening and forced his resignation without recourse to the indignity of lamp-posts. It only remains now to see what happens to the clique with which he surrounded himself; these include his wife, assorted losers, and odious, self-promoting members of Labour Yoof who need Sat Nav to find their way around the city they help run. Many would have it that Phillips jumped before he was pushed, as – it is alleged – was the the case when he left the HMRC (or whatever it was then called) down in Pembrokeshire. * Here we have looked at some examples of colonialism and discrimination at work. The UK government gives the ‘Welsh’ Government billions of pounds, but then civil servants and others ensure that as much as possible of that money either makes its way back to England, is given to English people living in Wales, or else is spent on projects that do nothing to improve the wellbeing of Welsh people. These examples show this evil and discriminatory system at work. A system that makes a mockery of devolution; for unless devolved powers are exercised in the interests of Welsh people then ‘devolution’ is more damaging to Welsh interests than the system we knew before.
Il Duce ! very apt, looks like the Swansea mafia are coming unstuck again ? I think hes right that some of the droids running the show here know or care very little about the city and its people going on how run down and badly managed the place is in certain areas,their accountable just to their puppet masters at London HQ not to us it seems at times ? Just 1 example imo. Surely whoever designs our road layouts with all the lights and no entry signs here has never visited from behind their desk in England somewhere to see how badly it works on the ground in some parts ? Its cheaper to take the car than pay bus fairs after buying those bendy things n again messing with the roads . The list goes on but again what do you think we need done to improve things ?
simple get rid of the gravy train the welsh assembly and it's quangos and get back to councils getting a fair share of money that will be enough to run their area's instead of being forced to increase council tax above inflation and council workers threatened with job cuts. There is far to much money being spent on a white elephant in cardiff with Am's rubbing their hands in glee in a job that pays well plus over the top expenses that can be better spent in the towns and cities in wales. cut out the waste of space middle men and the welsh assembly that are not needed.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-west-wales-29026562 The new leader of Swansea council's ruling Labour group is Rob Stewart - one of the men sacked by his predecessor in a cabinet reshuffle. Mr Stewart, a councillor in the Morriston ward, said it was a "huge honour" to take up the post. He succeeds David Phillips who resigned last week after 10 years in charge to focus on building Swansea's profile. It came a week after being told to expect a leadership challenge after sacking Mr Stewart and another member. The Labour group has been in charge at Swansea council for the last two years, and Mr Stewart is expected to be elected leader of the council when councillors from all parties vote on 9 September. Mr Stewart said the council needs to make itself "fit for purpose despite some huge financial challenges". He added: "A change of leadership does not mean a change of course, but it does mean an increased focus on delivery. "I intend to say more over the next few weeks about the tough decisions needed on spending. "It is my belief however that these decisions must reflect priorities within the communities who elected us. "I want to match savings with improvements. I will be looking closely at the entire local authority with this aim in mind. People's aspirations and expectations still need to be met even in times of austerity." Mr Stewart said he would retain the finance portfolio he was sacked from and would look at the responsibilities of other cabinet members to make them more service focused.
An absurd comment. The Welsh Office was an impotent talking shop. The WG does a decent job with limited resources. I tickles me that (not pointing a finger at you) so many people who support UKIP want to get rid of the WG and let decisions about everyday life in Wales be handed to people we haven't elected, yet are consumed with rage when it is Brussels rather than London that has some say in the way we are treated. I would also suggest that, if Swansea City Council, is all the things that it has been accused of on here ... do something about it, aim to become councillors and put it right as you see it.
