May 28: County Hall feels the coalition pinch
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DISCOMFORT rather than pain. That’s how Cllr
John Simmonds, Kent County Council’s cabinet member for
finance, is describing the ramifications of KCC unexpectedly having
to find £22m of savings in its budget this year.
He’s also described it as a
"nasty surprise" and "distinctly uncomfortable" for the authority,
which gives you some idea of why there will be some apprehension in
certain KCC departments at the audit underway to assess where some
of the money will come from.
The focus of any savings –
needed because of George Osborne's £6bn squeeze -
will be on non-essential, discretionary services rather than the
important frontline stuff. Of course, what is non-essential and
simply desirable rather than vital is a matter of opinion. I expect
there’ll be some interesting cabinet discussions in the next few
weeks, with certain special interests seeking to justify their
continuance.
It’ll be interesting to see how
the authority’s International Affairs Unit comes out, for example.
And will KCC see the granting of a £500,000 bale out to East Kent
Opportunities, the limited company set up to steer the development
of the Manston Business Park and the Eurokent site in Thanet, as
essential? Watch this space.
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There’s bad news for former KCC education director
Graham Badman. His job as chairman of the quango
Becta is to go as the organisation, which promotes
the use of technology in learning, is to be scrapped by the new
coalition government. He’d been in the post for barely a year. In a
statement, Mr Badman says he is disappointed at the
news.
And there’s also bad new from
the government for Mike Pitt, former chief
executive of KCC and the chairman of the Infrastructure
Planning Commission, set up by the government to speed up
the rate at which decisions on major planning infrastructure
projects are reached. That too is being scrapped as part of
Cameron’s cull of quangos. Can't help thinking both will pitch up
somewhere else before too long.
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How do you get to speak to an MP
who you once could pick up the phone to and have a conversation but
who has now become a minister? With great difficulty, it seems.
I’ve been after a chat with the new minister for decentralisation
Greg Clark about the government’s intention to scrap the South East
Plan.
I’ve now spoken to two press
officers in his department – as well as his personal office – both
of whom asked me what I intended to ask and promised faithfully
they’d get back to me. Still waiting.
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With Conservative county
councillor Paulina Stockell taking on the
vice-chairmanship of KCC, a vacancy has arisen for a new chief
whip. We hear the job has gone to Deal representative Julie
Rook.
Friday, May 28 2010
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