Ending “time-wasting” partnerships and cutting the number of senior officers are among the ways councils can cut their overheads, according to the town’s MP.

John Redwood MP has offered suggestions to local councils on how they can save money and cope with new freedoms following the coalition Government’s rise to power.

He suggests ending all partnerships and networks outside councils that “slowed the system down and wasted so much senior time”.

He also suggests fewer senior officers are needed in the new regime, as there is less demand for communication with central Government.

Mr Redwood writes on his blog: “Put on a strict ‘no recruitment’ policy and use natural wastage to run down numbers, reorganising posts as people leave.”

He also suggests the council withdraws from areas where it need not “interfere or spend money”, set realistic building targets and “buy better to cut costs”.

He said: “The aim should be a lower council tax. It can be delivered whilst raising standards in the core services. This government’s changes allow a large reduction to be made in the overhead.”

Mr Redwood told The Wokingham Times he would also support shared chief executives between councils.

He said: “What we are doing is stripping out so much cost for them by stripping out box-ticking. I do not favour redundancies, because I think that is cruel and expensive, but I think as senior staff disappear councils can take advantage of that by not replacing them.”

However, Cllr Prue Bray, leader of Wokingham Liberal Democrats, has hit back at the suggestions from Mr Redwood.

She said: “John Redwood is a good MP in many ways, but it is clear he knows next to nothing about local government in general or Wokingham Borough Council in particular. 

“John’s idea that councils should abandon all their partnerships and networks is in my view sheer lunacy. 

“Partnerships and networks are absolutely the right way to go – first, because they are the best way to make public money go further by pooling resources and effort, and second, because they are the best way to make sure the council is in touch with what’s right for the area.

“It has taken years to convince the Conservatives on the council of the merits of talking to the outside world.  

“When times are as tough as they are now it is even more important than it was before.  I hope Conservative councillors ignore their MP’s advice to pull up the drawbridge – they need to be engaging more with others, not less.”

Site navigation

• Home
• News
• Business
• Sport
• Entertainment
• Lifestyle
• Jobs
• Property
• Motoring
• Classifieds

• A A