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Staffordshire County Council Office buildings - Wrong choices?
- Thread starter Franklin_Delano_Roosevelt
- Start date
John Marwood
I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Builders have booked B n B's until February 2013
Gadget
Well-Known Forumite
When i lived in Stafford i had a team of folk involved in my life and they had to reschedual meeting etc with me so they could move into the building. About March(ish) they again had to reschedual as they were now being moved out of the building. So when adding up costs i'm sure there were some involved in the actual moving of departments into and in this case also out of the new building.
I made an FOI request to see the business case for this development on 10th March 2012. On 18th July (well ouside the FOI response deadline) I was forwarded a heavily redacted copy of the Cabinet meeting minutes from April 2009. I pointed out that this was not the document requested and was told "the information provided was identified as the business case and supplied by the relevent service area". Further correspondence with the Senior Access to Information Officer has been ignored.
So, not sure whether it is a case of officer incompetence who can't actually find a document called Tipping Street Business Case or whether it's member refusal to release the information. Either way, transparency is obviously not high up the agenda on this one............unless of course they have mislaid the cigarette packet the sums were calculated on.
Incidentally, the costs identified above regarding the prestigious loo of the year award only relate to the awards night booze up attended by the service senior managers and invited guests - you have to pay to have your loo inspected in the first place so the costs of this jolly exceed the above figures by some considerable amount.
So, not sure whether it is a case of officer incompetence who can't actually find a document called Tipping Street Business Case or whether it's member refusal to release the information. Either way, transparency is obviously not high up the agenda on this one............unless of course they have mislaid the cigarette packet the sums were calculated on.
Incidentally, the costs identified above regarding the prestigious loo of the year award only relate to the awards night booze up attended by the service senior managers and invited guests - you have to pay to have your loo inspected in the first place so the costs of this jolly exceed the above figures by some considerable amount.
proactive
Enjoying a drop of red.
Sounds like you might have a case to make an appeal to the information commissioner.
henryscat
Well-Known Forumite
Yep.
John Marwood
I ♥ cryptic crosswords
" Staffordshire County Council
has recently completed a new head office with biomass boiler and has set
up an independent wood fuel company to supply their building and generate
income through sales of wood chip to other local authorities in the Region.
This is now a well established business."
Shropshire Council memo
Is this boiler now working? has it ever worked?
has recently completed a new head office with biomass boiler and has set
up an independent wood fuel company to supply their building and generate
income through sales of wood chip to other local authorities in the Region.
This is now a well established business."
Shropshire Council memo
Is this boiler now working? has it ever worked?
John Marwood
I ♥ cryptic crosswords
John Marwood
I ♥ cryptic crosswords
Blue on Blue
From the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-20780307
A Staffordshire councillor said "a proper budget" should have been worked out for a business park which is set to cost £2m more than expected.
County councillors have approved an extra £2.2m for the park at Redhill, off the A34 in Stafford.
Liberal Democrat borough councillor Barry Stamp said the county council "should have done its homework" before.
But the Tory-run county council said changes to the original £8.5m plans followed a "solid" redesign.
'Stick to budget'
The site's planning authority, Stafford Borough Council, which is also Conservative-run, approved the plans in October after twice deferring the decision to gather more information.
The county council is funding the project which it said could create 2,500 skilled jobs - more than originally estimated.
The park, expected to be completed next year, will target businesses in the research and technology sector.
But Mr Stamp said it should have been properly costed earlier.
"This request for extra money has suddenly sort of come out of the blue and what what worries me more than anything is that an organisation the size of the county council haven't worked out a proper budget for this park right from the very beginning," he said.
"Building projects can go over budget but £2.2m is lot to go over budget by.
"An organisation like the county council should have done its homework properly. It should know the budget that it's working to and it should be sticking to that budget."
'Rolls-Royce' design
Mark Winnington, the county's cabinet member for environment and assets, said the project had been costed properly but they were aiming for a "Rolls-Royce job that's going to stand the test of time".
The rise in costs followed discussions with the Environment Agency and other groups looking at areas such as drainage and protecting nature, he said.
"We have changed the design. We have now got a solid design that we are happy with which will be there for the next 50 years," he said.
Mr Winnington said the creation of skilled jobs in Stafford was very important, particularly as the town's jobless total had increased in the last quarter.
"We are being transparent about it and saying it's going to cost a bit more but it's 2,500 jobs," he added.
From the BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-20780307
A Staffordshire councillor said "a proper budget" should have been worked out for a business park which is set to cost £2m more than expected.
County councillors have approved an extra £2.2m for the park at Redhill, off the A34 in Stafford.
Liberal Democrat borough councillor Barry Stamp said the county council "should have done its homework" before.
But the Tory-run county council said changes to the original £8.5m plans followed a "solid" redesign.
'Stick to budget'
The site's planning authority, Stafford Borough Council, which is also Conservative-run, approved the plans in October after twice deferring the decision to gather more information.
The county council is funding the project which it said could create 2,500 skilled jobs - more than originally estimated.
The park, expected to be completed next year, will target businesses in the research and technology sector.
But Mr Stamp said it should have been properly costed earlier.
"This request for extra money has suddenly sort of come out of the blue and what what worries me more than anything is that an organisation the size of the county council haven't worked out a proper budget for this park right from the very beginning," he said.
"Building projects can go over budget but £2.2m is lot to go over budget by.
"An organisation like the county council should have done its homework properly. It should know the budget that it's working to and it should be sticking to that budget."
'Rolls-Royce' design
Mark Winnington, the county's cabinet member for environment and assets, said the project had been costed properly but they were aiming for a "Rolls-Royce job that's going to stand the test of time".
The rise in costs followed discussions with the Environment Agency and other groups looking at areas such as drainage and protecting nature, he said.
"We have changed the design. We have now got a solid design that we are happy with which will be there for the next 50 years," he said.
Mr Winnington said the creation of skilled jobs in Stafford was very important, particularly as the town's jobless total had increased in the last quarter.
"We are being transparent about it and saying it's going to cost a bit more but it's 2,500 jobs," he added.
tek-monkey
wanna see my snake?
So its only gone up by 25%, thats good for a government budget! Love the way the extra costs are attributed to things that weren't needed originally and only now warranted due to the high quality aspect of the project - like drainage!
Goldilox
How do I edit this?
Given that they've not broken ground yet, it actually seems quite reasonable to me that the budget might increase. Surely the point where you go from a rough "how much do you think it might cost to stick a retail park on that field?" to adding up the costs of each part of the job after detailed surveys is exactly when you want the budget to increase. Better that than it all comes as surprises later....
I suspect, had a lot of time & money been invested in highly detailed costing up when it was only a possible project without the go ahead, Mr Stamp would have been in the press shouting about how much was being spent on a development that might not happen.
I suspect, had a lot of time & money been invested in highly detailed costing up when it was only a possible project without the go ahead, Mr Stamp would have been in the press shouting about how much was being spent on a development that might not happen.
ATJ
Well-Known Forumite
Ah, Cllr Stamp. He has a history of ranting on about things before the full facts are known (See: all previous rants about A518). I would have thought the budget increase has come 'out of the blue' because, as a Borough Councillor, the County highways department doesn't have to ask his permission when they redesign a scheme. Just a thought.
John Marwood
I ♥ cryptic crosswords
A total of 354 staff were made redundant from councils in the West Midlands and Staffordshire and then taken back in different roles.
The figures were released today under the Freedom of Information Act.
More than half of those were at Staffordshire County Council, which cut 185 staff and later brought them back since the 2008/09 financial year.
Combined redundancy payments for the axed staff was more than £3.4m, with 16 of the payouts topping £50,000.
County council bosses defended their decisions, saying 43 per cent of those axed only came back on a casual basis and 55 per cent came back under the council’s wing after six months.
They added that those cut posts came out of 1,350 redundancies in four years at the council. Employees returning to work included care assistants and cleaners.
Finance councillor Ian Parry said: “Making staff redundant is always a last resort and we take great efforts to avoid it. A small number of staff who are made redundant do reapply for different jobs, which they are entitled to do.
“Over the last five years, over 40 per cent of those, including such roles as cleaners and catering staff, have been re-hired on a casual basis – that means they are not salaried and do not have any contracted hours but instead can cover sickness and absence at short notice.”
The figures were released today under the Freedom of Information Act.
More than half of those were at Staffordshire County Council, which cut 185 staff and later brought them back since the 2008/09 financial year.
Combined redundancy payments for the axed staff was more than £3.4m, with 16 of the payouts topping £50,000.
County council bosses defended their decisions, saying 43 per cent of those axed only came back on a casual basis and 55 per cent came back under the council’s wing after six months.
They added that those cut posts came out of 1,350 redundancies in four years at the council. Employees returning to work included care assistants and cleaners.
Finance councillor Ian Parry said: “Making staff redundant is always a last resort and we take great efforts to avoid it. A small number of staff who are made redundant do reapply for different jobs, which they are entitled to do.
“Over the last five years, over 40 per cent of those, including such roles as cleaners and catering staff, have been re-hired on a casual basis – that means they are not salaried and do not have any contracted hours but instead can cover sickness and absence at short notice.”
ChrisLewis
Well-Known Forumite
People of Stafford Celebrate!
For we are in good company - The Good people of Malta appear to have used both the same architect, same design ie two buildings & a plaza, same construction method!!!
For we are in good company - The Good people of Malta appear to have used both the same architect, same design ie two buildings & a plaza, same construction method!!!
staffordjas
Well-Known Forumite
I walked through today and couldn't believe that they were still working on it and lots of the walkways still cordoned off. They were taking up and replacing some of the new paving slabs that have been re-laid not so long ago!