Key KCC budget vote set to agree £95m cuts

JVS wrote:

County Councils have had it too good for too long. Our money was easy money and they exercised no self-control in expansion and excess.

Fit and healthy teachers, firemen and policemen have been retiring in their 50s on gold-plated pensions for years. No wonder we're in a mess.

20 Feb 2011 5:46 PM

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Jon wrote:

The problem has been, Oz, that while, as you say 'not everyone has been on the fix', a few very powerful people have been. Carter and his Cabinet have happily waved goodbye to six figure sums to satisfy the greed of a few ex-chief officers. This has undoubtedly affected the culture of the organisation and too many of those in management positions are just out to protect themselves, at the expense of lower paid staff and services. The public service ethic is long dead in Kent.

18 Feb 2011 12:58 PM

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William wrote:

Don,t forget the Tories were out of power for 13 years because of the mess they made when they were last in goverment. Now the nasty party are back in power by default they will ruin things again....Labour build and boom Tories Doom and gloom.

17 Feb 2011 9:43 PM

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Oz wrote:

What people tend to forget is it was the Labour government that over the past 12 years or so wrecked this country. The present government have decided that someone has to pay and it is the public sector. They are calling the shots, not KCC. Everyone conveniently forgets who got us into this trouble (Bankers or as they are referred to in my house w .....s)! Sure there is some waste in local councils but not everyone is on the fix or gets massive pay and benefits. Bankers get more in bonuses than most of the staff make in many many years of loyal council working.

17 Feb 2011 7:08 PM

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Mr Old Age Pensioner wrote:

After years of over inflation council tax rises and now £95m of cuts(I'II believe it when I see it) so why isn't council tax being REDUCED by 10%

17 Feb 2011 7:03 PM

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Dave wrote:

What puzzles me is the claim that cuts of £98 millions will not affect front line services. If that is the case why have we been paying such high council tax bills for the last five years? It looks like they have been indulging themselves with wasteful pet projects.

17 Feb 2011 6:06 PM

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homer wrote:

Kent County Council is set to agree a budget this today...means?

17 Feb 2011 5:44 PM

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EB wrote:

95m Savings means job losses, Kent Youth Service cuts equal 100's of jobs to dissappear before April 2012, so where does the KCC figure of only 1500 over 2-4 years come from?

17 Feb 2011 4:21 PM

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SW wrote:

If they hadn't been so damned stupid with the Iceland bank lost £50 million, the good people of Kent wouldn't be facing quite as many cuts.

Here's a novel idea too, how about they take a pay cut (as both my husband and I have done in the past 2 years in our private sector jobs) to avoid redundancies amongst their colleagues? Our pay cuts were structured so that those in higher earnings brackets had higher percentage reductions. To date, both companies have made no forced redundancies.

Lets hope they make the right decisions though as the electorate will be very harsh next time round!

17 Feb 2011 9:59 AM

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me wrote:

check the bank accounts for the over exaggerated expenses

17 Feb 2011 9:37 AM

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