We would have preferred to give you Councillor Stennett’s thoughts on the Value for Money Exercise Live from the Webcast. But we have waited a whole week for the webcast video to go up – and we are still waiting… WONDER WHY?
Section here. Councillor Stewart Stennett Webcast Clip: NOT AVAILABLE.
MISSING! PRESUMED TRASHED!
It couldn’t possibly be that the Waverley Web is just getting too hot to handle?
https://modgov.waverley.gov.uk/documents/s18579/Strategic%20Review%20Report.pdf
BUT HERE’S A QUICK RESUME.
The committee was considering A consultant’s Report by Cratus (another London borough) – cost ( ? ) which was described by Councillor Nick Holder (Dunsfold) as , “a load of gobbledygook and, full of stuff I can’t understand.” He claimed it came to no conclusions, on how to solve the funding crisis. “I can’t find any new ideas,on how to save £2.8m over the next three years?”
Councillor Stephen Mulliner – when speaking about other councils entering the property investment arena – said he was concerned that THEY, (other councils) were far further along the path than ‘Your Waverley’ now wanted to go along! In other words that ‘YW – had missed the boat!
Farnham Residents’ Councillor Gerry Hyman said residents were becoming increasingly sceptical about the prospect of the council property speculating. But the minute he queried the council’s reliance on receiving nearly £1m a year from the Brightwells development, the chairman promptly shut him up! Others said the council would have to decide which services it would provide in future – but there was considerable confusion among officers when asked what the definition of ‘discretionary’ and ‘non discretionary’ services actually were!
In other words, the services they have a statutory obligation to provide, and those services they can, choose to provide.
The officer’s response was that there was, no clear definition!
Chairman Mike Band said: There is a clear message that the Executive and officers have to come up with a dramatic future strategic vision, because,“we just cannot go on as we are!”
Councillor Stewart Stennett said he realised there would have to be some very major cost savings. “Something radical needs to happen. But what you are talking about frightens me to death. Listening to you guys talking about buying up whole housing estates and going into real estate! Our funds could disappear rapidly. I have sent loads of e-mails about all this and have not received one single reply. Is this safe, how do we know? It frightens me to death, we are standing on the edge of a cliff here. We have to stay in the realms of what is possible!’
Forgive us here at the Waverley Web, but CSS was speaking very fast – so we may have missed some words. As soon as the webcast goes up – if it goes up – you will be able to hear for yourselves!
Councillor Mulliner believed the council had three options:
- Outsourcing its administration.
- Removing non discretionary schemes
- Improving its investment income
He said, we should also tell the Executive that we are ‘very disappointed’ that the consultants have not come up with some more adventurous strategic ideas and with a specific time-scale.
The final sting in the tail came from Councillor Holder who said he, and others, would like to know how efficient Waverley’s planning department was/is? Do we know we are running the planning department efficiently?
WOW! Now there’s a Question?
HERE’s what SCC intend to do.
Here’s what the Government says:
Councils playing the property market face crackdown
