I read with interest your front-page article (“Jobs worry for 100 district council staff”, April 6) about the forthcoming service review at South Holland District Council.
Am I the only one left thinking that, if anything like this many jobs are axed after seven years of austerity, there won’t be a district council left worthy of the name? Will we soon end up with more councillors than officers?
The chief executive is quoted as saying, in relation to existing staff: “If they can’t change, if they don’t want to change, if they don’t want to be part of the journey we are on, then perhaps they are better off not with us.” Can she really be referring to employees who, since the present government came to office in 2010, have suffered years of pay freezes and redundancies all around them, with consequent increases in workload and stress? If they have stayed with the council despite all this, is she really suggesting they may not be loyal enough to keep their jobs?
While our district council’s wage bill has plummeted in real terms due to redundancies and low or zero pay increases (with no proportionate decrease in our council tax), the bill we pay for councillors’ allowances and expenses has continued to escalate.
Local Tory councillors are not responsible for the savage cuts which have been imposed on local government since 2010 (although they obviously helped to get the Westminster government which has imposed them elected), but perhaps they should be taking their share of the pain, and valuing the staff who do the real work a little more highly.
Martin Blake
(Green Party candidate for Lincolnshire County Council Spalding Elloe division)
Rose Leigh Way, Spalding
