| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re: Possible sale of Court House | |
| Posted by: | Malcolm Grimston | |
| Date/Time: | 20/01/07 19:18:00 |
| Thank you for the kind comments and I must say quite like the Town Hall suggestion in some ways, but I don't think it is really a starter. Perhaps I should say first of all that I don't have an office at the Town Hall - only the Leader and the Leader of the Opposition have their own offices, and there is a little space for Executive Members plus a Members' Room for all councillors. Since the 60 of us are in effect Non-Executive Directors of a £1 billion-a-year business then a certain amount of close contact with senior managers and with each other is needed, I think. So yes, if I thought it were a good use of public money for me to have my own office, rather than the resources being spent on services, I would be very happy in a nice chapel. The Town Hall buildings (and other council premises) are actually the headquarters for the council's wide range of activities and the several thousand workers who are delivering the services that make us the best council in the UK, according to the government. There are two advantages in keeping as many as possible of these staff and their managers close together in a single location. First, economies of scale - breaking up into several dozen small units would inevitably increase the total spent on administration, heating, security and so on. Secondly, it is important that officers are in close contact with other departments so that we can continue to give a whole-council approach to community service, rather than risk breaking into silos. (A brief look at some of our more sparsely populated County Councils would illustrate this point - staff in far-flung outposts often do not feel part of the organisation as a whole.) Of course IT could help to a degree but face-to-face is still often the best way of doing business and we would not want staff spending a large proportion of their day simply ploughing through Wandsworth traffic to get to and from meetings (formal or informal). According to the Audit Commission Wandsworth is one of only four 'upper tier' councils in the country which gets top marks (4 stars) for financial control. Administration is cut to the minimum so more resources are available for services, but it would be unwise to cut below that level. But in any case moving out of the Town Hall would not deliver any savings. |