What Cuts To Scc Spending Is Needed

[bassett one]

this could bring up some ideas,with scc on the brink what cost savings would you bring in to save us cash?

[iansheff]

To be honest not sure what they could cut back on but there is paper talk that the limit on CT will be altered. If it is, then you can bet that our CT will be raised to the max they can get away with.

[HeHasRisen]

5 minutes ago, iansheff said:

To be honest not sure what they could cut back on but there is paper talk that the limit on CT will be altered. If it is, then you can bet that our CT will be raised to the max they can get away with.

Of course it will be, the social care burden is huge. 

[geared]

1 hour ago, bassett one said:

this could bring up some ideas,with scc on the brink what cost savings would you bring in to save us cash?

 

Well considering that huge Collins memorial is still in place more than 6 months after he kicked the bucket - whoever is supposed to be in charge of getting it sorted is clearly not bothering to do their job so I don't know why they should continue to be employed.

[HeHasRisen]

Just now, geared said:

 

Well considering that huge Collins memorial is still in place more than 6 months after he kicked the bucket - whoever is supposed to be in charge of getting it sorted is clearly not bothering to do their job so I don't know why they should continue to be employed.

Would you be loathe to tell them to tear it down if they were threatening to burn down your house (or similar) in retribution?

[S35_2o21]

1 hour ago, geared said:

 

Well considering that huge Collins memorial is still in place more than 6 months after he kicked the bucket - whoever is supposed to be in charge of getting it sorted is clearly not bothering to do their job so I don't know why they should continue to be employed.

Enforcement of planning requirements must be a bit of a nightmare. There might be backlogs in the courts system as well. 

[bassett one]

what happens if they went for bankrupt

[tlangdon12]

I think SCC will find it very difficult job to save money. Most of the services they provide are either required by law, or so necessary for daily life that the residents of Sheffield would riot if they were withdrawn, e.g. emptying rubbish bins. 

 

The few areas where they have discretion have already been cut to the bone, but I guess they could cut them out all together, e.g. close the libraries and parks, and switch off all the street lights. But if the libraries were closed, it wouldn't save a lot (they would still have to be heated to avoid damp and frost damage, and the staff couldn't be laid off without incurring some cost), and it would make it impossible for some people to access the internet or keep warm - libraries are warm refuge for people who cannot afford to heat their home. I would want them to remain open for these reasons.

 

Closing the parks is an option, but they would need to be sold to someone to avoid them becoming a liability. One option is to sell them to developers, but use planning conditions to ensure that some green space is left for recreation, but the cost of managing the space is picked up by the residents via a service charge.  This is also very undesirable.  

 

Collecting council tax and paying benefits is not an option. The council can't cut the staff costs in these areas. 

 

There are probably some hidden areas of cost, e.g. defending legal actions against the council, and sickness rates for staff where some sensible interventions might save a bit. Where staff are off with stress caused by working conditions, you have to think that something can be done to get them back to work, e.g. by supporting them back into a different role.  One of the main causes of stress at work is when there are not enough people to do the job and so  residents get angry with staff because their needs are not being met. The way to keep people at work is to hire more staff and support them better, e.g. with senior managers (or councillors even) who are willing to take on hard cases and who are authorised to spend some money to get a thorny problem solved properly. But spending money to save money is difficult to justify; it's all to easy to spend more than you are really saving, but we have have all able bodied council staff at work and working for residents. It's different if they have a medical problem that no amount of adjustment at work will help with. 

 

Most ways of saving money have very serious downsides, or are very difficult to implement in practice. Even trying to generate additional income can cost money. e.g. if you invited better-off residents to give money to the council, you would need a system to take payments! But we have to try.

[bassett one]

parks dept i am told is cut to the bone and theres nowt left to cut,plus as our parks where gifted or most are its difficult