Council job cuts in Hampshire and Dorset

How about putting todays news into context over a more meaningful timeframe. Then we can get a detailed longer term view of Hampshire County Council expenditure before we rate any figures against perceived performance. Knowledge of the following statistics would be very helpful with such an analysis.

Annual expenditure for past five years (year on year)
Number of people employed for past five years (Headcount per year)
Annual expenditure on salaries & wages for past five years (year on year)
Annual expenditure on employee pension schemes for past five years (year on year)

Can these be obtained & posted?

In Oxfordshire we have also been told that more than 1,000 county council staff will be made redundant. Surely this exposes the ridiculous untruths told by Labour about the grant settlement somehow favouring the Conservative South of England authorities.

We are all shouldering our part of the load of removing the debt that was run up by the previous government, and in the process we are creating a stronger, more resilient public service that provides real value for money.

Of course there will be heartbreak for families affected by these changes but the country will be better for it. It would be good to see the statistics that Rog asks for above. I would wager that the reductions announced today do not take Hampshire back to the level of expenditure five years ago which was several years into the great Labour Party spending spree.

The lions share of my Council Tax goes to Hampshire County Council. They seem to have such a huge chunk of it, compared to everybody else, that it just doesn't seem warranted. It makes HCC look wasteful, which from observing what they are doing when I'm out and about, I'm quite sure that it is. News of cuts is therefore very welcome. The Hampshire Senate could go for a start...!

Mind you, I'm assuming here that the cuts will result in a long overdue reduction in Council Tax. Cuts are OK in my book if it means that Council Tax is reduced...

But I've a nasty feeling that savings won't be passed on to Householders.

I suspect we'll be hit with the double whammy of cuts in services and a massive increase in our Council Tax bills. If not this year, in 2012 when the election promise has expired...

Now that's a really good question for the media to be asking, i.e. what happens to Council Tax from 2012 onwards....?

Of course most of our Council Tax goes to Hampshire CC because HCC is responsible for providing most of the services used by the public. District councils provide very little by comparison. As for a reduction in Council Tax, I doubt it. According to Mr. Henley's report above, the savings to be made are not just to offset the reduction in government grant but to redirect the money (£20M) into improving frontline services where demand is increasing e.g. adult social care. This way, HCC can deliver more services without increasing the tax burden which would otherwise be necessary. No doubt Mr Henley will correct me if I am wrong in my interpretation of his article.

Schools may be 'ring fenced' but are not immune from the effects of cuts.
Teaching & support staff are having thier premium (overtime) rates revised.
Weekday's O/T rates shrunk from time-and-a-half to ordinary time and double time payments are to disappear.
Those who put thier own social and family life on hold to put in extra time for out of hours activites will be paid less for doing so.

Well my comments were all deleted truth hurts then. Whatever happened to freedom of speech this will not be dropped everyone will realise soon who Andy Moore really is .