Council is preparing for difficult times (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Council is preparing for difficult times

12:52pm Thursday 13th September 2007 in Letters

It is common knowledge that Kennet District Council is to be absorbed into Wiltshire County Council within the next 18 months, unless the Judicial Review upsets the applecart.

At the recent Kennet meeting which discussed the arrangements during the transition period, it was reported that there is: "The assumption that staff resources available to provide services will significantly diminish over the coming months, due to increased numbers of staff seeking employment elsewhere; the imposition of a recruitment freeze, to avoid unnecessary redundancies; the involvement of staff in the work of preparing for the new authority and an expectation of reduced staff resources will necessitate a range of strategies to cope with the new situation."

Kennet is reacting as sensibly as it can in the circumstances, but it cannot perform without the experienced staff to do the job. As a result, as explained in the council notes: "All the council's service managers have been asked to carry out an analysis of the services and activities that they manage."

There are going to be a number of services which will not be maintained to the current standards, if at all. The council notes conclude that: "There is a very real possibility that reduced resources will prevent the council from operating its services at their current levels, and difficult decisions will have to be made in this regard."

So Kennet is preparing for difficulties beyond its control.

There will be more elections in a year or two, to form the new county council, and the Guardians plan to fight them on a broader front than Devizes alone.

Jeff Ody Devizes Guardians