I have now had it confirmed to me by another councillor that the proposal to impose huge cuts to the Additional Support Needs service was always a ploy by Cllr Walsh’s administration. They would propose this, then withdraw it before Christmas to make them look like the good guys. This would also take eyes off the rest of the cuts going through, eg the £3m+ from early years. See my earlier post for more on this here.
Meanwhile, some good news from the constituency association meeting of the SNP on Sunday. The following press release was issued so perhaps we’re now in a stronger position to put up some serious opposition to the cuts. The Reform Group is and always has been willing to work with the SNP Group so we need to discuss how that opposition can work and agree on alternatives. The alternatives need to be radical in my view but they also need mutual agreement with the SNP.
https://www.facebook.com/michaelrussellsnp/posts/1011280592257163
The double side to this sword as it cuts through the vulnerable and poorest of society, and Mr Walsh arrives, just in time to save the day and the cuts to the vulnerable children aren’t imposed ,just before Christmas, to make it a true Christmas dream come true, well sort of….Because the areas that are cut, will blame the dis-abled kids for getting the other cuts implemented .To me, this is a dangerous game, a blatant abuse of position and power. Did the dictates, at Kilmory carry out an impact risk assessment, on what the cuts would mean to services? and those who use them?…for instance when you have a statutory need, compared to a discretionary need, and the council picks on the soft option, the discretionary need ,and cuts all the SEN`s to the discretionary pupils, and the statutory needs pupils still have the SEN`s .The scenario that will unfold is this, the ones who don’t have a Statutory need just now will go and get the child re-evaluated and demand under statutory needs a SEN for the child at school. This in turn drives up the amount of statutory needs costing the Council more money, in the long term..it is a short term fix Walsh has here, that is just one example. The one thing we know about and aren’t allowed or cant get back to tell the Emperor(apart from his new clothes)Walsh is this.The Westminster Government says, cuts need to be made, ABDC make the decision where to make those cuts there has been no referendum on the proposed consultancy cuts as circulated from Kilmory. It is noticeable that no financial cuts are made at the top of the tree, with the ‘fat cat’ wages paid to Officers who seem to do very little for serious good salaries and pension pots. It seems to me that our ‘illustrious leaders’ seem to leave themselves , the Senior Management teams ,alone, and cut at the sharp end of services. The question is this, if they do need to make cuts?, then a true consultation by the people, not the vin-dicK-tive consultancy non-choices, being implemented by the Council just now. It is meant to be”service choices ”.A true, from the peoples consultancy , would involve , getting rid of a few Heads of Departments, middle management jobs, closing Kilmory and adopt a more localised running of the areas in the various towns and Islands, break into the reserve pot and use some of the 100 million plus the Council has in reserves, sell off some of the 520 million pounds of assets, sorry that `s the real world. I’m afraid it’s the same old story , same old, same old, instead of the Saltire flying over the Council Buildings representing democracy ,it seems like ,the hammer and sickle are flying.
It is astonishing that the councillors were awarded a 1 percent salary increase and have not refused this.
1% hardly the way to control and reward?
The real reward comes with the extra money and expenses that go with senior councillor posts. That’s why my Reform Group proposes to cut this chunk of money by £200k minimum. At the moment the extra rewards allows Walsh to exercise control. He doesn’t need to whip them into line. He just takes their jobs away. Simples
always had to be more to it, good luck with the Reform Group.