Is all well with the PLC Coalition?

I only ask after what I am told by members and onlookers from all sides about last night's Council meeting to set the budget and council tax for next year. It would be a shame if such a principled bunch began to fall out - though I predict it won't happen until they've voted their placemen and women as Chairs and Vice-Chairs to the committees they were too inefficient to be able to capture on the last two occasions. (But will Rob Stewart actually turn up to Regeneration Scrutiny when he's Chair? I'm told that he's only ever attended one meeting...)

First, despite the fact that Plaid Cymru's amendments had been agreed to beforehand, it seems that David Phillips was still trying to renegotitate them with Darren 'Baby Face' Price as he was proposing. No wonder Phillips is facing a leadership challenge.

Then Labour voted against the amended motion, thus opposing both the transfer of an extra £500K for improving facilities for disabled people, and the installation of a sprinkler system in the new Penyrheol School. Not that the last one is much of a surprise really, as when the school burned down the last time, Labour rebuilt it without a sprinkler system. At least they're consistent.

Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett's New Model Tories proposed a 2% council tax increase to be paid for by either running reserves down to a dangerous and possibly illegal level, or presumably by £1.4m cuts in services. They didn't have the guts to explain what they would cut, though new convert Margaret Smith rather let the cat out of the bag by giving away details of the Tories' scheme to do away with Council water coolers. Is this the best they can do?

It's time for the Three Amigos to devote one of their regular meetings to putting the PLC Coalition back on track. What they need is a single leader..a Great Leader perhaps? I'm waiting for the 'Dear Leader' to defect to Labour myself...he could then join the two Labour insiders who are out to replace the hapless Phillips.

Every Little helps.

These two characters, (possibly of hetrosexual leaning despite the drink) proudly hold the key to the Conservatives proposal to implement a 2% rise in Council tax.

Lady Pennard obviously believes that taking the waters from the cold tap in the administration khazi is not only beneficial to maintaining ones sexuality but also has the side effect of saving the average council tax payer a whopping 24p a week. (In layman's terms: Half a small bottle of pow wow juice).

Lady Pennard's now legendary remark regarding cannistered water "turning you into a gender bender" was greeted from all sides of the chamber with the jovial response that the Tory ammendment merited.

These were the grounds for the proposed removal of all dispensers in County Hall in an attempt to make give Joe Public his weekly five bob.

The newly appointed Fiscal Affairs Spokesperson has got her career off to a flying start by revealing this central plank of Conservative local taxation policy.

However the cries of "Sit down Margaret, you've said quite enough, you're making our amendment look ridiculous" may indicate that the new tax saving policy has yet to meet the approval of the Cameron think tank.

A fresh approach?

The Inside Outers may well be right in saying that Councillor John Miles' comments on school closures is a fresh approach. However whether it heralds a new era in effective scrutiny is another question.

It is worth noting of course that Councillor Miles was commenting on the outcome of a review started under the previous regime, that up until his assumption of the Committee chairmanship his attendance was patchy to say the least and that overall the opposition had in any case largely abdicated the role of scrutiny.

What is interesting is the new Labour approach to school closures. As is clear from the article there are still some Labour stalwarts who do not believe that shutting down schools is a good idea at all. There is also no indication as to whether Councillor Miles speaks on behalf of the Labour group or not. Our betting is that if any proposals come along the Labour opportunists will jump on the anti bandwagon as they always have done.

The irony is that it is the administration who are less keen on school closures. Still if they find that such a course of action becomes necessary for sound educational reasons they can always ask John Miles to marshall his colleagues behind the proposal. Will they follow him, we wonder?

Update: How would the Labour spin doctors know how Administration Councillors behaved on scrutiny committees? They were never there. For the record the Administration have never operated a whip on scrutiny either.

Triumph @ Swansea

We are not in the habit of using this blog to pre-empt announcements by the Administration, so why exactly the Inside Outers felt that they should have read it here first that the Council is doing a deal with Cardiff on e-government we cannot say. Nevertheless if they choose to re-read our posts on this subject they will see that we have been hinting at it for some time.

Despite all the spin coming from Labour and the Tories the facts are these:

1. The Administration decided that the figures did not stack up on phase two with Capgemini and rather than take a risk with taxpayers money decided to look at other alternatives. Councillor Mary Jones told Council that it was still the intention to go ahead with the contact centre using a different provider.

2. No expenditure has been committed to phase two and therefore all the talk of money wasted is just nonsense. The figures on phase one are clear and add up. Now that we are proposing going into partnership to deliver phase two then we will be able to deliver the contact centre we promised.

3. As one comment on the Evening Post website said: "The council have delivered what they said they would, a new contact centre with the appropriate technology at a fraction of the original price quoted."

What is amusing is how suddenly everybody has acquired the powers of foresight. Councillor Mark Child for example tells the Post: "Unfortunately, we no longer have the IT expertise to be able to implement this in-house as they were all transferred to Capgemini. Having said that, this is the approach we have been advocating all along."

As Labour's Technology Spokesman Child should know that it was not the expertise that was lacking it was an appropriate record management system and if he really has been advocating this course of action all along then he must have been whispering it very quietly. It was certainly not on the agenda of the previous Labour Administration when they started service@swansea in the first place.

The Evening Post is equally as prescient. However, they also need to understand that the driver for going to another local authority was the fact that costings on phase two were not affordable. The use of Cardiff's CRM could not have happened without phase one being implemented first.

The Administration also did not inherit a blank sheet. When we took over a process was well underway with preferred bidders and all the legal advice was that we had to see it through or else end up paying compensation.

The outcome is much better than it could have been. We have a system in place that is starting to produce the anticipated savings and we also have a workable alternative to Capgemin so as to deliver phase two. We have done this without busting the budget originally set by Labour when they conceived of e-government in the first place.

Update: Labour reproduce a previous post of 28 April 2006 from the old Inside Swansea blog but all they have succeeded in doing is to prove our consistency on these matters. The Council is still on course to achieve its savings whilst the deal with Cardiff will guarantee the massively improved interface with the public that will transform the Council's customer service record. Labour ask what we have been doing for the last three years? The answer is sorting out the mess they left us and getting e-government right.

Investing in our future

The proposed Council budget includes a massive investment in Swansea’s future. £10.5 million has been earmarked to tackle the mountain of school repairs inherited from the previous Labour Administration. This includes £850,000 for the twelve schools in the worst condition.

Work is due to start on a new Welsh School in West Cross, whilst money has also been set aside to finish off the refurbishment of the Leisure Centre. This is on schedule to re-open by the end of the year.

A new Central Library is to be opened in County Hall as part of a civic centre project that will open up this building to general public use. This library will be complemented by a new contact centre to make it easier for the public to access Council services. In addition a new bowls hall will be opened in Plasmarl to replace the one that disappeared when the Leisure Centre closed.

Investment is also starting to come into the City Centre with work having started on re-developing the old David Evans site and with more developers interested in investing in the City as well. The Council is proposing to complete the bus link to the Fabian Way Park and Ride site in the next financial year, whilst the new lanes for buses, taxis and bicycles in the City Centre has eased public transport access whilst helping to tackle congestion.

The Administration are also anxious to start work on rebuilding the Quadrant Bus Station and are waiting to hear if their grant application to the Welsh Assembly Government has been successful. This scheme was held up by land acquisition issues prior to 2004 but we have got it back on track. The intention was always to fund it from Assembly Grant, all we need is that money to be approved and work can start.

Not a Coalition - honest!

All the constituent parts of the PLC Coalition loudly deny that they are in fact a Coalition. It's like the Pope denying he's a Catholic if you ask me.

As I've said before, if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. In that context, I'm told that Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett, David Phillips, and Darren 'Baby Face' Price have taken to seeing Chris Holley together to talk about the Budget.

If there is no PLC Coalition, why do they need to do so? Such a visit only makes sense if they are working together, but don't trust each other that much...

A budget for all

At Cabinet today the Administration will bring forward proposals that will limit April’s Council Tax increase to an inflation-busting 3.5%. The current RPI is 4.4%.

Their budget includes a suggested £15.5 million extra for front line services. Street cleaning, waste disposal, libraries, new specialist teaching facilities, parks and support for children and families will all receive extra investment.

Top priority for the Administration is cleaning up the City. They
have earmarked an extra £200,000 to fund specialist cleansing
teams who will move from community to community targeting
‘grot’ spots. An extra £67,000 is to be spent on better sweeping
machines that can get into more awkward places.

£2.4 million has been set aside for children with additional learning needs, which includes new specialist teaching facilities. £1.1 million is to be invested in child and family services, including foster care, adoption and parent support, whilst an extra £500,000 has been provided for adult services such as care homes and domicillary care. £45,000 is to be invested in extending library opening hours, whilst school spending has once more been kept higher than Assembly Government guidelines.

For many people the headline Council Tax rate is the most important factor and we are proud that we have managed to invest in services whilst maintaining an average rise of 3.9% over our three budgets. Compare that to Labour, whose average tax increase was 8.66%, a rate achieved whilst simultaneously allowing all of the City's assets to fall into major disrepair. Now that was incompetence.