'Yes Minister' comes to Somerset County Council

Written by Councillor Alan Paul and published in Somerset County Gazette on Thu 7th Jan 2010

Dear Sir,

So the Conservatives who now run Somerset County Council are so awash with our money that they can afford to set up a new 'Ministry for Administrative Affairs' (aka the Cabinet Office) run by no less than four Sir Humphreys at a cost to the council tax payer of £300,000 per year.

While the jobs of people who deliver frontline services are being cut all the time, what will these new appointees be doing ? According to the job descriptions, these 'ambitious' Sir Humphreys seeking 'superb career opportunities' need 'political astuteness' in order to 'represent cabinet members (i.e. the small coterie of ruling councillors) at meetings'.

There was I under the impression that these Tory councillors get twice the allowances of us backbenchers so that they could go to meetings themselves, work out their own policies, and enable non-political officers in charge of services to carry out them out.

Since taking control of Somerset, the Tories have cut P.C.S.Os, cut Community Budgets for local initiatives, (totalling around £ half a million) and cut frontline posts in a random, unplanned way whenever someone leaves. Instead they have spent £50,000 advertising for a new Chief Executive having got rid of a very good one for an undisclosed pay-off, and now want to spend £300,000 on people to do the councillors' jobs for them.

As the real Sir Humphrey used to say to Jim Hacker "A courageous decision, Minister."