DON’T ASK ME, JUST THROW MONEY AT IT!

Someone once asked Tony Blair if there was anything he regretted from his time in office, to which our former Prime Minister surprised the interviewer by answering: ‘The Freedom of Information Act’.

One of the effects the ‘Freedom of Information Act’ (FOI) enshrined, was to introduce a "general right of access" to information held by all public bodies, subject to certain absolute exemptions where disclosure was not deemed to be in the public interest.

However, in Tameside, the overriding principle of requiring the council to publish their monthly spending data; supposedly to enable greater transparency, greater engagement and greater efficiency by allowing inspection by residents, appears to be a total anathema, and supposedly to minimise awkward scrutiny, Tameside bosses appear to have have designed the format in which they chose to publish their monthly expenditure, in the most user-unfriendly fashion; however when one persists and trawls through the information, it’s quite enlightening to see that the practice of ‘throwing our money at private sector consultants' in order to solve problems that could be resolved internally by well-paid civil servants’ councillors and council bosses is increasingly on the increase.

Take this for example, found under transactions made by the council in October 2014.

Ref: 5174415 under the heading of Housing, Economic Growth, Investment and Sustainability, a figure of £5,600 was paid to a company called PARKING MATTERS LIMITED who proudly list Tameside Council as one of their valued clients; - and who, according to their website are a specialist consultancy that provides innovative advice on all matters related to parking; and speak of how their ‘clients’ can rely on their expertise and consistent track record to optimize the value of their parking assets!

In a nutshell, they advise property owners, local authorities, developers and operators on how to realize the full potential of their parking assets!

Now, forgive me, but on reading Tameside Council Leader Kieran Quinn’s blog, dated November 10^th 2014, he gave us the impression that “it was because of feedback from residents, businesses and the shopping public that the Council moved to significantly reduce the cost of car parking in prime town centre car parks to make them even more attractive and affordable for shoppers. This, he told us, “will of course support the local economy and, in the run up to Christmas, should significantly benefit everyone.”

He went on to say, “Once in place, Tameside will have the lowest tariffs for long stay car parking in Greater Manchester as well as being one of the cheapest for short stay town centre parking.”

So, despite our leaders claims that this small effort to encourage a few more people to fight to park, albeit more cheaply in our towns, came about by “listening to what the public has to say” something, he tells us, “the council does on a constant basis” would now appear to be based on ‘paid for’ consultative advice prepared by a private company! - Advice that thousands of Tameside town centre retailers, shoppers and visitors could have told him for free!

Could this be yet another example of ‘over-paid, under-qualified, political square pegs that have been crammed into the council’s round holes; or could it really be true that there is no one left within the hallowed portico's of Tameside Town Hall who can sort out the boroughs car parks?

God help us!