Save Suffolk Services

Controversy is raging over the decision by Suffolk County Council to push to outsource its services. The decision is made worse by the lack of prior discussion with the parties involved. How will St Edmundsbury Borough Council afford to run their new Council offices if the County staff there are all outsourced?

The problem with the local authority system is there are irrevocably wedded to over-regulation and find it easy to point to central government rather than the local 'rules' as their excuse for sticking with 30 to 40 page forms which take up the time and create a costly process. Though I am not sure a private provider of service would be able to escape the forms.

I have never been a supporter in 'profit making' companies taking a slice of public service money, but there may be ways in which they can slice through the civil service focus on finding new ways to take longer to do something 'just to be on the safe side.'

We will only get staff working efficiently when they are back to filling in 'one page' forms that don't need hours spent guiding the public on how to complete them, and I fear that must come from central government first rather than cuts first, lower staff numbers first and afterwards no time being available to work out how to do it cheaper. I wish Councillors had far more direct input into operational roles in local authorities rather than perusing local officer prepared reports.

It is all very well saying we could work more efficiently but if central government does not calm down its regulatory oversight those efficiencies may not be available.

But for all of us we need to elect more like minded to have a chance of bringing that forward and frankly not enough people are coming forward to make that happen.

I Chair a Youth Club, I am active on the committee of a charity helping people with learning disabilities. Suffolk is full of like minded people helping their communities so in many ways the Big Society is here now. But it is not for all. In Southgate the community have been active in taking over their community centre with the brilliant and active support of Lib Dem Councillors like Craig-Dearden Phillips and the Borough Councillors. On the Howard Estate there has been complete failure to inspire that community to take over their community centre. Such successes and failures are already happening with the way things are at the moment.

My great fear is that outsourcing will be a way politicians wash their hands of responsibility for reduced services, but there are public spirited organisations and individuals willing to take up the challenge. We need to find a way of harnessing both streams of activity to get the best of both worlds.

At the moment Suffolk to seem to have pushed all their ideas out to sea in a leaky boat without checking to see if the lifeboat service is still funded and running.