Savings Verses Cuts

With election fever gripping the nation and the media getting all excited about providing a 'balanced view' I thought I would take the opportunity to talk about how myth, rumour and hype are running away with us.

This year (as I have already covered) the council tax bills for the people of Tamworth have not increased and there have been no cuts to services. however in order to achieve this there has been some savings made over the last 7 years and to make savings as everyone knows you have to change the way you do things. Recently there has been some scaremongering about the numbers of police in Tamworth and we have a statement from the local commander to state that this is not the case. so how does the public sector make savings without cuts to services.

The way I look at it is reasonably simple, I want better services costing less, so somewhere savings must be made either without cutting services or where possible making them better. The police argument is a great one as the public has said for years they want more police on the street and officers top spend less time in the office doing paperwork and feeding process chains. So with the savings that must be made to get this country back to where it should be the police are looking at and changing the processes they perform thus allowing more police on the street without the cost of extra personal. So doing what the public have asked of them changed systems to make savings without reducing the number of police on the street, and reducing the huge amount of paperwork generated by a simple arrest.

Another example I can think of is the new waste management system that Tamworth Borough Council and Lichfield District Council have joined forces on.

• The new service launched last year saves over £500k per year.
• All Tamworth Bins are done in half a week.
• All dry recycling is mixed
• More items can be recycled
• Food waste can be collected every week.

So how can this change to a service and saving produced be deemed a cut in front line services, it simply can't. there may have been a cut to staffing levels somewhere (contractors and back office) but the service is bigger, faster and what the public asked for, the removal of blue boxes.

It would be wrong of me to comment on the savings over cuts argument without mentioning swimming. Now in Tamworth we have the chance of free swimming at Wilnecote Leisure centre for the first time ever and we still have the same services we had at peaks before the sale. The difference is we are getting those services at Peaks for only £70k per year and not the £600k that it was costing the tax payer of Tamworth. Peaks needed over £1m spending on it at the time of sale to keep it running. The extra investment needed has been put in place by the new owners and the swimming facilities, gym, sports halls are brighter, better and more used than ever still at affordable cost, so a saving and again a better service.

My last example of a saving has to be the opportunity costs of running 2 outlets in the town centre at different times of the day rather than one building. The new TIC in the Phil Dix centre took more money in the first day than the old one in nearly a week, it is bigger and brighter and has most to offer than the old one could giving the opportunity to develop the service further.

So now onto cuts, for me cuts should only be made if a service is under used and not just for cash savings. My approach to the council is simple money is a scarce resource and as councillors we have to allocate that scarce resource correctly. It is not easy to run all services at a profit and this is where the council should be taking up the slack, but for me we should not be providing the same services as shops and local business.

I don't want see any cuts to services that are used but I do want to see less paperwork and better services.
I think that's enough for now because I'll end up listing and dispelling some of the local myths of present