Three security officers at full council meeting - what is the reason?

Have you considered how much money is spent by the Council in answering your requests? Money which could be spent more productively on front-lne services?

Hi

I know how much money the Council wastes. On SEMMMS, for example, while they were happily maintaining in Council meetings it would cost £425 million, they actually knew it would be costing £656 million and the cost finally rose to £1 billion, which £2 million alone to work out how to finance it under private finance initiative. That £2 million would have gone to consultants. How much is being paid to consultants currently for the A555? We all know it can't be built but it simply looks as if the politicians are doing something in pushing it through. There isn't enough money to build that road. I also asked a FOI request of the Highways Agency, the reply to which was given to clever people in London, who had questions asked in Parliament which led to a National Audit Office investigation which uncovered £3 billion of waste at the Highways Agency.

I asked FOI questions of Stockport Council which were submitted to Friends of the Earth who used that information in their submission to the Competition Commission, who penalised Tesco for their planning abuses which affect local businesses adversely.

We can't afford to borrow £5 million (before they have added in the huge contamination remediation costs) for the school in North Reddish when there is a safe site which doesn't need any remediation. The Council should have highlighted the option to simply renovate the three schools in North Reddish, which they didn't mention to anyone at any point was preferred by the Government.

Why does the Chief Executive need a top of the range BMW on top of his huge £150,000 salary? Why can't he pay for his own BMW if he wants to drive a flash car and not something more moderate? Why does the new Chief Executive need a £20,000 rise in his salary to £170,000? There are a lot of good managers out of work who would have been glad of the job at £150,000 and done a good job. Why do we need the Council newspaper full of pictures of grinning Executive Councillors sent to every house in the Borough pre-election at a cost of well over £100,000 when we have a perfectly good local newspaper which is struggling and which could do that job. Why are services to disabled children being "top-sliced" when the Council's publicity budget is increasing?

If we had an honest Council who were open, there would be no need to question. When that time comes I shall gladly stop questioning them and get back to reading books.

With warmest best wishes

Sheila

From Councillor Iain Roberts' Twitter during the full council meeting (don't know why he wasn't applying himself to the debate and spending his time tweeting instead - not what I pay him for)

CllrIainRoberts - #stockportmbc Full Council: 8 people in public gallery tonight.

So, three security guards in the public gallery for eight members of the public is a little de trop in my humble opinion.