It's nearly two years since I first crossed swords with the bosses at County Hall over precisely how many people who relied on Cornwall Council for earning a living would soon lose their jobs. The number has been something of a running argument ever since. Today I got the latest headcount statistics, which I think tell their own story.
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Comment number 1.
At 20th Jan 2012, Phil wrote:It may not be as many as 4600 jobs gone if some of the losses are because of privatisation/Laverysation rather than cuts. For example Leisure was due for some sort of outsourcing??
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Comment number 2.
At 20th Jan 2012, Graham Smith wrote:Indeed - and the original 2009 numbers will have included many teachers who now work for academies. All part of the drive towards becoming a "commissioning" council. But if the council is now doing 25% less than it was two years ago, should there not be a similar cut in the number of councillors?
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Comment number 3.
At 20th Jan 2012, Phil wrote:Devon CC gets by with I think 57 - so yes please.
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Comment number 4.
At 20th Jan 2012, superale wrote:"But if the council is now doing 25% less than it was two years ago, should there not be a similar cut in the number of councillors?"
Quite agree - firstly start with those 17 or so not willing to advise on whether or not they have paid their council tax - then we can sort out who is left, especially if Devon can get by on 57 why should we pay for so many more.
Less councillors to pay an allowance, and expenses, to means less councillors to delay paying their council tax.
Can anybody advise from voting records whether it is correct that Mr Folkes did not vote on council tax issues during the period he was effectively barred due to his non-payment of council tax, especially as we are still waiting for an answer as to whether he received Housing and Council Tax benefit or not.
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Comment number 5.
At 21st Jan 2012, P_Trembath wrote:Phil wrote:-
"Devon CC gets by with I think 57 - so yes please."
Not really! Devon has 62 County Councillors.
Devon has, in addition to it's 62 county councillors, the following:-
East Devon District Council.... 59
Exeter City Council................40
Mid Devon District Council.......42
North Devon District Council....43
South Hams District Council....40
Teignbridge District Council.....46
Torridge District Council..........36
West Devon Borough Council....31
Giving Devon 399 councillors, as opposed to Cornwall's 123. Remember, that the new authority replaced the old district and county councils in Cornwall, so the Cornish 123 are doing the same "work", and bearing the same responsibilities, approximately, as the Devon 394.
This means that Devon has 1 councillor to every 2,861 residents, against Cornwall's 1 councillor to every 4,352 residents.
(Figures used are from a quick search of the Internet, so may be slightly out of date)
So it would seem that Devon actually "gets by" on almost twice the, proportionally, number of councillors than we do here in Cornwall. Each Cornish councillor has, approximately, just under twice the number of constituents than his/her Devon counterpart.
The question is, are we heading for a situation where the Cornish council worker has to do twice the work of a Devon council worker?
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