Forum Topic

COMPULSORY REDUNDANCIES FOR OUR POLICE IN HOUNSLOW WHILST OUR COUNCIL WASTE 109,000 POUNDS

Hounslow Councillor's are certainly carrying on Gordon Brown's Poilcy of wasting we the Taxpayer's hard earned money. It cost you and myself approx. 109,000 Pounds last year for "wait for it" 3 not 1 but 3 Political Advisor's, what our Council should understand is that they are supposed to be A-Political, unbiased and working wholeheartedly for we the people of this community. Councillor's have to remember that they are just ordinary Mr & Mrs who were elected to do just that, get the best for our community not waste money on Advisor's. Our Police Force is necessary for without them we would have anarchy on the street's, now Hounslow Police are having to face COMPULSORY REDUNDANCIES through LACK OF FUNDS it is downright outrageous that Hounslow Council can happily waste money when the need is so much greater just metres from the Civic Centre in my mind 109K of money equates to at least 4 Policemen keeping there job's which will keep us a lot safer. Are the Council under the mishaprehension that CRIME has decreased in our district, therefore it really is no concern to reduce the size of our Police through lack of funds.Hounslow Council can save an additional 74,000 Pounds by making these 2 Diversity Officers Redundant,apparently these 2 persons are employed to ensure that the Council follow the Government Guidelines. What!! a load of rubbish 37,000 Pounds per Diversity Officer is a lot more than our local bobbies earn and there job is essential.Obviously the Climate Change Office is astronomical because the costing is not available to us, therefore just on these 3 supercilious titled job's I have negated the need to make our much needed Police redundant.When Hounslow Council along with other Councils and our Government condemn countries like China who had to close down Business's for 3 week's before the Olympics so that Atheletes could breath safely also India who concentrate more on there Space Programme than on there enviroment or the USA who the only Governor out there who has put in place strict rules against pollution, would you believe it Arnold Schwarcheniga(wrong spelling)ex-actor.Our emmissions in the UK are below one and a half% negligable!!! so you Councillor's get helping our Police with money that I have saved you to enable them to help us.

Dawn Hardy ● 5382d28 Comments

"Tourists are not going to the continent but are going to places like Goa, Thialand and Turkey countries who still have there own currencies"By some accounts, we shouldn't be allowed to go anywhere!!  :-) :-) "Don't you just love the British abroad!Sent around from Thomas Cook Holidays - listing some of the guest's complaints during the season. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------1. "I think it should be explained  in the brochure that  the local store  does not sell proper  biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts."2.  "It's lazy of the local shopkeepers to close in the  afternoons. I  often needed to buy things during 'siesta' time - this should be  banned3. "On my holiday to Goa in India , I was  disgusted to find that  almost every restaurant served curry.  I don't like spicy food at all."4. "We booked  an excursion to a water park but no-one  told us we had to  bring our swimming costumes and towels."5. A  tourist at a top African game lodge over looking a  water hole, who spotted a visibly aroused elephant, complained that  the sight  of  this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him  feel "inadequate".6. "The beach was too sandy."7. "We found the sand was not like the sand in the  brochure. Your  brochure shows the sand as yellow but it was white."8. "Topless sunbathing on the beach should be banned. The  holiday  was ruined as my husband spent all day looking at other  women."9. "We bought 'Ray-Ban' sunglasses for  five Euros  (£3.50) from a street trader, only to find out  they were fake."10. "No-one told us there would  be fish in the sea. The  children  were startled."11. "There was no egg slicer in the  apartment..."12. "We went on holiday to Spain and  had a problem with  the taxi drivers as they were all  Spanish..."13. "The roads were  uneven.."14. "It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to  England it only took the Americans three  hours to get home."15. "I compared the size of  our one-bedroom apartment to  our friends'  three-bedroom apartment and ours was  significantly  smaller."16. "The brochure states:  'No hairdressers at the  accommodation'. We are all  trainee  hairdressers - will we be OK staying here?"17.  "There were too many Spanish people. The  receptionist speaks Spanish. The  food is Spanish. Too many  foreigners."18. "We had to queue outside with no air conditioning."19. "It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of  noisy or  unruly guests before  we travel."20. "I was bitten by  a mosquito - no-one said they could  bite."21. "My  fiancé and I booked a twin-bedded room but we  were placed in  a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the  fact  that I  find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if  you had put us in  the room that we booked."

Steve Taylor ● 5373d

"Tourists are not going to the continent but are going to places like Goa, Thialand and Turkey countries who still have there own currencies"Rubbish, I went to Greece in the summer and am going skiing in France next year.  Also you have no idea how the police are funded, or indeed much else other than manic green inkery.  Get a clue, for God's sake."when you have only one currency you no longer have competitio"Care to explain this extraordinary statement which, if true, means that Peugeot are not in competition with, say, Fiat and Volkswagen?

Thomas Barry ● 5373d

Totally agree with you Adam, the coalition have many good idea's however they kind of go off track trying to implement them, is it the wrong information being given and they accepting it without asking question's! dangerous!!

Dawn Hardy ● 5378d

Great piece Steve, the Gordon Brown Gold Bullion Fiasco cost the UK between 11 and 16 Billion pounds and was quite unecassary he just could not allow the Bank of England to advise him therefore he went his own jolly way and nearly very nearly Bankrupted us.

Dawn Hardy ● 5378d

The Eurozone is failing purely because of the Euro itself, there is no longer any finacial discourse consequently when you have only one currency you no longer have competition, the money market is kind of frozen, if you listen to Mrs Merkle she is completely disallusioned with the Euro( just watch Germany and France will not prop up the Euro much longer) this is the 3rd time in history that the Euro has been tried the 1st time it lasted 8 year's the second time it lasted 15 year's only time and ruination of countries will tell how long it will last this time.Tourists are not going to the continent but are going to places like Goa, Thialand and Turkey countries who still have there own currencies. Ireland is doing pretty good on it's own except the Euroites are insisting that they have a 50 Billion Euro loan in case they need it in the future the interest accrued on a daily basis will be ruinous for Ireland they must continue to refuse the loan.

Dawn Hardy ● 5378d

And a number of small streams run through Brentford, just ask long term residents of Brook Rd South who owned houses when Brentford FC built the "Wendy House".

Neil Chippendale ● 5378d

Unlikely, although if it's only a small hill near an existing watercourse the likelihood increases !.

Adam Beamish ● 5378d

Do  need a flood risk assessment in a Tower block on the top of a hill? just wondering!

Philip Walsh ● 5378d

Just to go slightly 'off topic' but relevant in terms of comments about Climate Change Officers, today the Government launched a consultation on the idea that, instead of nationally set planning fees, local authorities would be able to set their own planning fees - the concept being that the current nationally set fees don't always reflect the cost of the Council resources utilised in determining the application.Now to me it is absolutely farcical - twenty years ago a planning application, even for a major scheme, only required afew plans and a covering letter.  Nowadays my clients have to spent vast amounts of money appointing technical specialists to produce a plethora of reports covering a massive range of areas - flood risk assessments, sustainability statements, energy statements, viability appraisals, retail impact assessments, acoustic reports to name just a few.Yet now the Government basically don't just want developers/applicants to shell out thousands on compiling all these reports, but also to pay more in planning fees to fund the lack of resources available to Councils to properly assess all those reports.Not exactly likely to help get the construction market buoyant again is it ?.

Adam Beamish ● 5378d

Good post Steve  I agree with large parts,Brown certainly cocked up big time on the gold front,especially telling the rest of the World what he was going to do in advance. When would you buy gold,when it's scarce or when you know that in a couple of weeks they'll be a glut?  I have to differ on how Germany got out of the global mess quicker than the rest of the west,that was down (imv) to the fact that they still have a manufacturing industry. Something that we don't and in my view that has to be laid at Mrs.Thatchers feet,turning Britain into a paper shifting service industry was never going to work.(sorry if that offends,just the way I see it).  Those two things coupled with the bankers greed/idiocy,anything that has sub and prime (it means below par for Gods sake)in the title and is being offered by the Americans shouldn't be touched with several barge poles tied together. If there was money to be made then the Americans (rightly or wrongly)would have kept it to themselves.  Nope I'm afraid our current predicament is the result of several generations of sub prime intellect politicians of varying hues.

Tony Wood ● 5379d

Come on folks surely you don't expect Dawn to understand anything other than her self possessed bigotry. I've never known anyone else who's post sound/read 'Drunk'.

Philip Walsh ● 5379d

"perhaps you could explain why Greece, Portugal Spain and Ireland are in deep doo-doo,"Whilst I agree that policing is not a matter for Hounslow Council, lets not forget Greece, Portugal Spain and Ireland were deep in the doo-doo when they joined the EU. They all did extremely well out of Germany, Italy and the UK and their standards of living was boosted enormously at our cost. And I don't for a minute begrudge that. However,  Gordon Brown's sale of more than half the country's gold reserves at rock-bottom prices has cost every UK taxpayer £100's. It has been suggested that Brown's  sell-off  at between $256 and $296 an ounce has now cost Britain an estimated £7 billion, twice the amount lost when Britain left the Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1992.That is double the loss suffered by the Bank of England on Black Wednesday, credited with ruining the Tories' reputation for economic competence under John Major.The decision to sell the gold taken by  Brown, when he was Chancellor, is regarded as one of the Treasury's worst financial mistakes.It is now claimed that the  gold price is set to rise  to $1,600, $1,800, $2,000 and beyond. Thanks Gordon!!  Strange too that Germany eased its way out of recession caused by the so called 'world wide problem'  after just a few months and the 'world wide problem' didn't even touch base in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa to name a few.  This was a problem caused by the Blair / Bush buddy regimes and the irresponsible financial management by our then Chancellor. Quite simply Gordon didn't have his eye on the ball.

Steve Taylor ● 5379d

Sorry Dawn, you just don't seem to be getting this. Why keep banging on about the Police in Hounslow - they're being cut across the country - if you want to blame anyone try the Government. It wouldn't matter if Hounslow Council got rid of all their staff tomorrow the money still wouldn't be able to go to the Police. Similarly with Government budgets, and if you think Gordon Brown is the villain in all this, perhaps you could explain why Greece, Portugal Spain and Ireland are in deep doo-doo, I don't remember Gordon Brown being elected in any of those countries, we have a worldwide financial problem brought on in the main by banks and other financial institutions lending irresponsibly.

Vanessa Smith ● 5379d

Lets tax police bribes that would help

Philip Walsh ● 5379d

God helps those that help themselves = Motto of thieves worldwide!!Money being spent on wars would be better spent, EDUCATING OUR CHILDREN, TREATING OUR SICK, ROOTING OUT POLICE AND POLITICAL CORRUPTION!Notice you ignored the truth contained in my last post Dawn, welcome to the real world!

Philip Walsh ● 5379d

There is insufficient money in Government coffer's just because of the Labour Goverment's inability to do what was best for the UK, Gordon Brown gave our money away willy nilly for instance why??? did he give 1.3 Billion pounds to India for there Space Programme,that is money that our Armed Forces needed in the War Zone. Money wasted by the Council could be better spent assisting our local police force to avoid redundancies. Old saying"God help's those who help themselves".We need the Police greatly we do not need or want party political advisor's or Climate Change Officer's who cost the community astronomical amounts of monies that we do not have.

Dawn Hardy ● 5380d

The simple answer to Policing is this. Legalise Canabis and tax it. We can stop spending huge sums of money persecuting the sick and dying as well as the social users. We could then release a third of the prison population (those incarcerated solely for cannabis crimes)this would see only none violent offenders being released unlike present plans to release the violent ones. The taxes raised would pay for more police and lead to a happier more honest and inclusive society. At the moment a third of the population are disenfranchised, disillusioned, disappointed, dismayed and unrepresented.

Philip Walsh ● 5380d

Political advisors don't have anything to do with climate change - they are distinct and separate functions, I do not agree with your assertion that the last Government is solely to blame for the financial crisis, that has been a worldwide problem starting in the USA. In fact we'd have been far worse off had it not been for Gordon Brown's work on this isse. That aside, political advisors are the link between party and councillor and the many other bodies that councils are involved in, they advise on Standing Orders for their party's business and a contact for other local authorities and members. Officers on the other hand should not be politically partisan and should give impartial advice as I'm sure Adam will testify. None of this has anything whatsoever to do with the Police or the funding of them, that is up to the Metropolitan Police Authority and the Mayor of London and ultimately the Government.

Vanessa Smith ● 5380d

Well I am certainly an ignoramus, because I thought that once plain old Mr & Mrs became elected they would leave there political aspiration's behind and all parties would work together for the greater good of our community. You say that Councillor's represent their constituent's as if we have seen any 1 of the 3 elected for our ward since the election.The idea was that we would assist in funding our Local Police ourselves from our coffer's there appear's to be plenty of money floating around for politics but none for community safety!

Dawn Hardy ● 5381d

Adam,I sincerely appreciate your explaination, however what do Political Advisor's have to do with Climate Change, also whilst I understand the need for knowledge of how to get grant's out of the government(Diversity Officer's) why 2 or 3 people when 1 could do the job efficiently or is it worth our while? do we in fact make a killing out of grant's if this is factual then surely we should have more than enough funds to keep the word Redundancy out of our Local Police Force.JUST HOW MUCH MONEY DOES CLIMATE CHANGE COST WE THE COMMUNITY??? NO ONE IS PREPARED TO SAY!!!

Dawn Hardy ● 5381d

Steve,Many thank's. could not have put it better.

Dawn Hardy ● 5381d

Neil,That maybe so, however because of the economic mess that we were left in by the last Government, belt's have been tightened all round, quite frankly by the Council scrapping the Political Advisor's,Diversity Officers also Climate Change Officer's and by utalizing the same monies we can overcome our Local Police Redundancies we need the Police far, far more then these Council Officer's. The Police protect us whilst these dept's cost us money that we can ill afford. Just a thought but just how much of the Communities money is wasted on the Climate Change Department it much be a hell of a lot if we cannot get hold of the costing and Neil for what? exactly! we in the UK are contuinually being penalised whilst the rest of the world continues to destroy it without any government being taken to task. Please do not mention Council Redundancies when Council Worker's have already been short changed by the last administration (ALL OF THEM) giving away our Libraries(600 thousand pounds per year plus cost's) our Leisure Centre's 1 Million pounds per year plus cost's this is for a period of 25 year's.HOW ON EARTH COULD THIS HAVE HAPPENED AND YET IT HAS, it is a complete disgrace!!!

Dawn Hardy ● 5381d

"Political advsors have been on the LBH payroll for years."I agree Neil - but likewise MP's have been scamming expenses, Banks have been  paying huge bonuses, people have been scamming benefits, evading tax etc, etc for years and years too. I believe the point Dawn is making is that times have changed and all these issues need to be addressed and debated as clearly we are bankrupt. I have no idea on the value and justification of these political advisors but Vanessa seems to make some good points to promote further debate?

Steve Taylor ● 5381d

Whilst I don't disagree with the basic points of your post, when an applicant submits a major planning application it has to be accompanied by a plethora of specialist technical reports, including sustainability and energy reports having regard to the national guidance contained in PPS22.If the Council did away with some of the posts you mention then no-one in the Council would be able to review the supporting information/reports submitted to ascertain whether they were accurate and their conclusions correct, so  then to undertake its statutory function the Council would need to appoint external consultants to review those reports - and I imagine it wouldn't take long for that 74k you mention to be spent on consultants.

Adam Beamish ● 5381d

That's absolutely right Neil, and other councils also have political advisors too, it's only being made an issue now because the self opinionated, non-elected and right wing Tax Payer's Alliance have picked up on it as another one of their things to have a whinge about. It is daft for anyone to expect Councillors not to be politicians as you would know, not only do they represent their constituents they also represent their party and their beliefs and policies It wouldn't make a scrap of difference to the Police budget in Hounslow if all the political advisors were sacked tomorrow, as the Police budget comes from the precept from our Council Tax made by the Mayor of London.

Vanessa Smith ● 5382d

DawnPolitical advsors have been on the LBH payroll for years. None of the main parties ever complained about the cost when I worked for LBH.

Neil Chippendale ● 5382d

Many thanks Tony,It would appear that Big Boris has decided that the amount of Council Tax going to the Met for 2010-11 is being reduced by 16 Million Pounds, a fall of 2.48% compared to the previous year, he also plans to reduce the number of police officers by 455 over the next 3 year's, he assure's us that these redundancies are not frontline Police Officer's but officer's who work in administration, many years ago officers had to plow the beat and do there own paperwork, he also promises that more officers would be put on the street.  This only pinpoint's the need and urgency for our Council to cut back on needless job's and help our Local Police financially to ensure that redundancies do not occur.We cannot afford to let one Police Constable who work's out there on the street's to be made redundant, unfortunately Crime has not diminished but has increased why??? because there is no detterant our prison's are full, therefore it is kind of Carte Blanche for Criminal's despite the Police doing there job, they catch them and the court's let them free.

Dawn Hardy ● 5382d

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8508606.stm

Tony Wood ● 5382d