It seems Labour are not learning. In Cambridge they are planning to employ a range of new officers. What happened to austerity? What happened to protecting front line services?

First up is the most daft. A living wage promotion officer!!!!! This person will be employed to lobby businesses, colleges and other organisations in the city to pay the living wage. This will cost £39,280 over two years as well as a £14,000 costs and publicity budget.

This is a complete waste of public money. Whilst other public sector organisations are tightening the belt it seems Labour in Cambridge think that there is so much spare money around it can be used inappropriately. Hard working people deserve better. They are paying taxes to fund this nonsense. The money should either be not taken in precept in the first place or used on essential services.

This smacks of employing a council officer to carry out political work.

Second up is the Chesterton Co-ordinator role. This will cost £45,000 over two years. This looks like an unnecessary campaigning position. Why is it necessary in Chesterton and not other parts of the city? If local people want to gather together or bring ideas forward then if they see the need to they will. For example, I brought together a group of people, where I live, to campaign for broadband (see previous posts) and we won the day. We did not need a publicly funded officer to do this for us. The money would be better off being returned to the tax payer in a lower precept of being used on essential services.

Third but by no means least, a promotion of water meters officers. This is a daft idea created by politicians who are ……. wait for it ………wet behind the ears. Labour are proposing to spend £100,000 on an officer aimed at promoting the benefits of changing to a water meter?????? What happened to personal choice? What happened to common sense? What about the Water Companies in all this? It seems that council tenants still need to get permission before switching to water meters so that could be easily sorted with out cost.

Madness. Financially inept.

More and more. Labour want more enforcement officers, dog wardens, tree officers, anti-social behaviour officers, play officers, recycling and waste minimisation officers and so on.

Cambridge City Council has too many non jobs paid for by the taxpayer. It is time to get rid of them and certainly not to add any more.

At the county council I removed loads of them and the job was only half finished when I left.

For a more in-depth analysis Richard Taylor has a nice piece at http://www.rtaylor.co.uk/labour-non-jobs-cambridge.html