Are we being ripped off, vandalised and abandoned by Walsall Council ?
I read that Walsall council have ‘saved’ over £1million each year on the contract for recycling by renegotiating the contract. We learn that there are negotiations to reduce the cost of the SERCO contract that Walsall by £2.5Million ( £7.5 over 3 years) to look after education in Walsall. Walsall signed an extension of this contract for another 12 years . This in spite of the fact that education standards in Walsall are at a dismal failure being 151st out of 171in the Country this new contract pays them £345M over these next 12 years..We have improved a bit but basically we continue to fail most of our young people.. if we did not have the results from Queen Marys’ schools we would be even lower. I suspect that now Walsall education is the only education contract run by SERCO ( all other councils have given them the sack) all failing schools will be forced into becoming Academies to allow SERCO to make a good profit for their shareholders and not lose out by imposition of any penalty clauses… our children are of course not the priority… the shareholders are!! Such a rip off! How long have we been overpaying for these services?
Then we have the Tarmac contract with clauses here which cost us dear when we wish to install for example dropped curbs at pavement level to allow wheelchair access where the cost has jumped from £350 under the Council to over £1000 under Tarmac. What value for council tax payers of Walsall.
We had the AMEY contract that cost us Council tax payers £7.5 Million due to a set of clauses so badly checked by Walsall Council allowing another private company to walk all over us and take us again to the cleaners.
We have at the moment the tabled acts of vandalism …
Closing 6 libraries and I suspect more next year.
Closing school swimming pools
Serious risk to all of the Walsall Music service
Cut to the Debt counselling service at a time when they are needed more than ever.
More cuts of support to the Domestic violence support service ( report due out in early February)
What support will be there post end of March for LINK… the local watchdog checking on our local health service?
What chance to properly repair our roads , especially with a private company Tarmac setting the price?
What effect on the most vulnerable in our society who depend on Walsall Social services for respite for their carers.?
Will SERCO sell off all the failing schools to private companies and form more academies to leave only those under Walsall Council those which are ‘profitable’ to SERCO?
More items to come as the budget cut debate unfolds.
What sort of Borough and Council will we be left with? Not the sort to be proud of or to attract new communities vital to our futures
and why so little fuss about cancelling Building Schools for the Future?
ReplyDeleteBird and his cronies were perfectly happy to accept the mney when it was on offer, no complaints then, were there?
But compare Walsall's reaction to that of Wolverhampton and Sandwell - Wolverhampton were quicker off the mark, better organised and got the bids signed off (recognising that the climate might change at any minute); Sandwell raised an almighty fuss and got the situation reviewed by the High Court.
Walsall (with worse schools than either Wolverhampton or Sandwell, and therefore with more to gain from putting up a fight)did ... absolutely nothing.
Typical weak, unimaginative leadership from the tories.
Shame on you, Walsall labour group, for not ramming this down their throats with fury and gusto!
walsall council spent around £1million preparing walsall for the bids for bsf and theprimary school bids. SERCO is ripping off Walsall to the tune off around £`13million a year for the nest 12 years.. while supervsing delling off as academies all those schools that are failng ( and there are a lot of them) no wonder al other education authorities have sacked SERCO. i agree we are letting down and failing our children/young people in Walsall. all makesme very angry also
ReplyDeleteian robertson