Barlow's brief

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Spare a thought for council staff

Vic Barlow
9/ 5/2007

HANDS up if you think big is beautiful. If you prefer a call centre to dealing direct or leaving a voicemail rather than talking to people or a city centre post office in preference to the one in your village then you will be delighted with plans to reform local government.

If not, then tough luck because no-one wants your opinion. In fact, the only opinion less important than yours is that of town hall staff, you know, those people who've delivered our local services for the past 20 or 30 years.

Come July the die will be cast and Macclesfield Borough Council will be history. Whether we have a Cheshirewide unitary authority or an east-west split, residents and staff will have absolutely no say.

So, what will happen to MBC staff? County councillors are too busy hustling for power to be concerned with such trifling matters. Oh, they'll huff and puff and make all the right noises but do they really care?

There must be redundancies if they are to make savings. How many chief executives does one unitary authority need? How many planners, accountants, clerks and telephonists does any organisation need when everything is under one roof? That's the whole point; if there are no savings then why do it?

So spare a thought for all those long-term employees of Macclesfield Borough Council who have no idea if they will be in employment once the changes are implemented in 2009. If the new structure turns out to be another disaster there will be no going back and a lot of dedicated MBC personnel will be dumped.

  • THE views expressed on this page are Vic Barlow's and not necessarily those of the Express.

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Most recent 2 of 2 user comments

   I agree with Mr Davenport's analysis & am thankful that Mr Barlow has for once hit the nail on the head. The plans to reform local government are simply a damning indictment of the times we now live in - the implications of these reforms will be far reaching & affect our community in a plethora of ways.
Leigh Turner, Macclesfield
15/05/2007 at 09:38
   I was bracing myself for the latest leptokurtic ramblings, from the pugnacious old busybody Mr. Barlow, when I picked up the paper the other day. Finally, and not a moment too soon I might add, Victor has touched upon a pressing local issue. I am all for shedding layers of unnecessary bureaucracy and eliminating inefficiencies but really believe targeting local councils is the wrong approach. It seems to me that we, the taxpayers, will pay the legacy costs of this local power play.
Chris Davenport, Congleton
11/05/2007 at 07:00
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