New cabinets at Hull's Guildhall an 'appalling waste of money'
TWO new cabinets bought to exhibit the city's historic silver collection have been branded an "appalling waste of money".
Hull City Council has spent £8,000 on the new display cabinets.
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Controversial: Councillor Dave McCobb with the old and new cabinets at the Guildhall. Picture: Simon Renilson
They were being installed in the Guildhall yesterday at the same time as councillors were debating proposals to cut up to 240 jobs at the authority and slash a range of longstanding staff perks.
Liberal Democrat Councillor Dave McCobb said: "The cabinets are an appalling waste of money and are being installed at a time when more staff are facing redundancy.
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"They were the first things to be paid for from a special fund set up by the council leader last year which was meant to be reserved for priority schemes.
"With due respect, I don't think flaunting the council's wealth in a pair of expensive cabinets is a priority at the moment."
It is believed the cabinets were bought after security concerns over the way some of the council's silver collection was being stored.
Council leader Councillor Steve Brady said: "We needed to improve the way the silver collection was exhibited.
"It's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things but we have to get it right because we are working within a listed building."
He said the likely job cuts on the council's business support directorate were a legacy of previous Lib Dem administration's last budget which had authorised £3 million of savings in the department without specifying how they were to be achieved.
"More people will be leaving the authority but not all in one go like last year under the Lib Dems when 1,000 went through the door in a few weeks.
"It will be managed in a measured way because that it the right way to do it."
He said the planned changes to staff terms and conditions were also long overdue.
They are expected to see longstanding locally agreed deals on mileage, overtime and pay-outs for staff taking voluntary redundancy being renegotiated with trade unions.
Mr Brady said: "The message I want to get out is that flexibility will save jobs.
"For example, we can't carry on paying up to 65p a mile for certain car users when the national average is 45p. We are also supposed to be promoting Hull as a green city and having a mileage allowance which is far higher than most other councils doesn't fit well with that.
"I am sure the trade unions and the staff will understand we can't go on spending what we haven't got.
"The more flexibility we get from the staff, the more jobs we will be able to protect."
He blamed continuing cuts in Government funding to local councils for the financial squeeze at the Guildhall.
Latest estimates suggest the council faces having to make at least £33 million of savings over the next two years to balance its books.
In an e-mail sent to all staff earlier this week, confirming the intention to overhaul terms and conditions, interim chief executive Darryl Stephenson said: "I know this will not be welcome news."
Mr Stephenson said changing locally agreed terms and conditions was one way of protecting jobs and frontline services.
He said the council's current £160 million annual salary budget had to be trimmed.
"Some terms and conditions of city council employees can be seen as generous when compared with neighbouring authorities," he said.
Comments
by JohnEG
Sunday, September 23 2012, 1:20AM
“Also who is going to varnish the cabinets to match the colour of the old cabinet and surrounding walls? As i said yesterday!”
by JohnEG
Sunday, September 23 2012, 1:18AM
“Demonica666: I agree, unless the cabinets were built "in-house" and the £8000 was the actual cost of council employees building the cabinets, who otherwise would still cost £8000 twiddling their thumbs.”
by Demonica666
Saturday, September 22 2012, 9:20PM
“Ok. As the first poster on this subject, I will now précis the posts; the conservatives are dreadful, the lib-dems are awful and Labour are appalling. Now we have collectively reached the decision that politics is a joke, I STILL maintain that 8k for a cupboard to house silverware is obscene. The end.”
by emmarie-c
Saturday, September 22 2012, 10:31AM
“I'm sure the local museums would have been able to care for the silver in the mean time until the council had enough 'spare change' to buy these cabinets? A waste of money at the minute, could have been put into better things!”
by isismama81
Saturday, September 22 2012, 9:01AM
“unified - actually it is the Hull city council who fund it as i have recieved the paperwork from, surprise, Hull city council!!! I have the evidence you don't so until you know what you are talking about keep it to yourself!”
by JohnEG
Saturday, September 22 2012, 1:15AM
“Another point that rattled me today was "For example, we can't carry on paying up to 65p a mile for certain car users when the national average is 45p.". I work for a global company and our rates are less than 20p a mile.
Does that mean Hull City council will pay £78 (60 x 2 x 65p = £78) to travel to Leeds and back?”
by JohnEG
Saturday, September 22 2012, 12:57AM
“thesnooper: Just a thought: maybe the council's own workshops did build these cabinets. High viz jackets, make sure they don't get splinters from the wood / cut themselves on the glass, planning, design, administartion, health and safety, etc.
Also who is going to varnish the cabinets to match the colour of the old cabinet and surrounding walls?”
by MimiTheDJ
Friday, September 21 2012, 11:57PM
“I hope they're going to take that piece of masking tape off the front. It looks unsightly. Couldn't we have had a picture of the finished result? With all the silverware in there it might have had more of an argument. Eight grand eh? It looks like summat you'd get from IKEA for about £300.”
by thesnooper
Friday, September 21 2012, 11:18PM
“8 grand what a joke the council have their own workshops so why didnt they get their joiners to build the cabinets, lets face it they are only glorified window frames made from hard wood.
but there again most council joiners only seem to join words together on their mobiles inbetween tea breaks”
by jezhull
Friday, September 21 2012, 9:49PM
“What an absolute waste of money by a totally inept council. Does Brady and his cronies know that we're in the middle of a double dip recession?
It's OUR money they're wasting, not their own and why on earth do so many eejits in Hull ever vote for these ill educated, power mad loonies?
Brady can barely string a sentence together, never mind preside over a joke council, one of the worst in the country”