War of words between Tory minister and council leader
MINISTERS have launched a savage attack on Nottingham City Council's Labour leaders today – accusing them of wasting taxpayers' cash and of acting in an "irresponsible and shameful" way.
The broadside from Tory minister Grant Shapps comes after the council refused to comply with an order to publish detailed information of its spending on its website.
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War of words: Grant Shapps, left, and Jon Collins.
But in a sensational counter-attack, council leader Jon Collins branded Mr Shapps "a fool" and called his superior, communities secretary Eric Pickles, "a buffoon".
The Post reported yesterday how Mr Pickles and Mr Collins had already clashed over the Government's determination to force councils to publish details of all expenditure above £500 on their websites.
Mr Collins refused, saying that the measure was merely the Government "playing to the tabloid gallery" while Mr Pickles threatened "serious ramifications" if the council failed to comply by the end of January.
The most recent attack by Mr Shapps, who has responsibility for housing policy, and the council leader's response has now caused the dispute to escalate.
Mr Shapps highlighted four examples where he said the council had misspent hundreds of thousands of pounds in recent years:
£600,000 on publishing and distributing free magazine Nottingham Arrow to 113,000 households
£200,000 on a "Proud of Nottingham" campaign with signs, banners and posters
A trip to Cannes, on the Cote d'Azur, taken by six council officials including the chief executive Jane Todd in 2009, costing over £30,000
An undisclosed sum to hire a cherry-picker to remove conkers from a tree because officials saw them as a health and safety hazard.
"Labour-controlled Nottingham City Council is playing politics with people's lives. Using the cuts as a political football to hammer hard-working members of the public is irresponsible and shameful," said Mr Shapps.
But on hearing of Mr Shapps' attack, Mr Collins hit back.
He said: "Grant Shapps is a fool.
"He's risking his already risible reputation and fast becoming as big a buffoon as his boss Eric Pickles," he said.
"Only such a fool would think he can attempt to discredit us with nothing more than half-witted and inaccurate headlines from the ever-more partisan newspapers and selective extracts from FOI requests and expect to be taken seriously.
"He's even more of a fool if he's had civil servants trawling the internet to find these stories for him because that would mean he's using public money and civil service time to help him make cheap political points – which is illegal – when he should be focusing on the housing brief that is, after all, his job."
He claimed that the council had already done the things Mr Shapps and Mr Pickles had said would make it easier for authorities to manage cuts.
"Our chief executive has taken a pay cut, we've reduced the number of senior managers by more than one third, we're sharing back office services with Leicestershire County Council," he said.
"We've significantly reduced running costs by moving to a single headquarters building and we've announced that, on top of 600 jobs that have gone during this year and last year, 370 jobs will go next year."
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by neil, hucknall
Thursday, February 03 2011, 8:50PM
“That would certainly shock us if the main parties accepted "collective responsibility" wouldnt it?..
Unfortunately, they,ll just continue with the same old blame game they,ve always played.. & the spin & half truths that dominates all their useless speeches.. Plus the complete childish behaviour in the House Of Commons(paid for by the taxpayers)..
They,re all hopeless & thats why the country is in a mess!!”
by observer2, Derbys
Wednesday, February 02 2011, 9:03PM
“I agree with the gist of what Mr Collins is saying here.
It all seems part and parcel of the top down imposed draconian cutbacks in local government, and a major distraction from what the current administration are actually doing to public sevices, amenities and jobs?
It's being turned into a blame game, and clever political manouvering to displace responsibility for current decisions.
The strategy/mantra seems to be:
"we've got no choice," and
"it's all Labour's fault."
Never mind the global banking crash- combined with neo liberal conservative ideology to cut back the state?
I'd call it a collective responsibility.
We need some adult debate and public consultation- not being patronised.”
by neil, hucknall
Sunday, January 30 2011, 8:02PM
“I totally agree with longsufferingcounciltaxpayer, nottingham......................................
They(most if not all of them) just feather their own nests as much as they can.. As someone quite rightly pointed out in a previous post, it,s part of human nature unfortunately..”
by Javid, Beeston
Sunday, January 30 2011, 4:46PM
“Andyman asked Are you calling me a liar?
My answer....Yes”
by longsufferingcounciltaxpayer, nottingham
Sunday, January 30 2011, 7:12AM
“The public consultation process in November asked the Nottingham public where they would prefer to see cuts made. A number of responses suggested that there be a reduction in the number of councillors and their expenses. Why not explore that issue? Local councillors who chair the committees who make the spending decisions cost Nottingham city, in 2009/10 £1061972.89 in allowances alone. A worker on minimum wages working full time could expect to earn £11563.35 per year, yet 22 of the 55 local councillors in Nottingham in 2009/10 drew allowances of over £20000 with 12 of them exceeding £25000. Not bad when you consider for some it is a part time job. The leader, Jon Collins, drawing £46338.59 in allowances during that period. This year, one of the councillors is currently drawing over £3000 a month in allowances when you include his civic duties. For that sort of outlay, we should expect better fiscal management. But it is most of this group of individuals who over their many years, have dominated local decision making and have helped lead us done the road to financial ruin which the council tax payer now has to pay to sort out.”
by neil, hucknall
Sunday, January 30 2011, 1:05AM
“Robin Hood must be turning in his grave.. They,ve used his name for one of their buildings (he was Robin of Loxley wasn,t he?)..
& they do things the opposite way round to how Robin did it.. All of them, no matter which party they are.. They ROB THE POOR to PAY THE RICH!!
Yes I know folks, Robin Hood may only be a fictional charecter.. Its just a pity that this lot(all of them) aren,t fictional too..”
by living in the real world, Nottingham
Saturday, January 29 2011, 9:40PM
“red for ever, nottingham
Your a Buffoon and a complete FOOL”
by Help to Change Nottingham City Council., Nottingham
Saturday, January 29 2011, 9:37PM
“to Dave, Notts
Dont forget the Xmas trees mate.
There was one in Loxley house that cost in Excess of £5000 and that was inside the building.”
by neil, hucknall
Saturday, January 29 2011, 9:10PM
“As I said last night, "none of them are fit to govern country or council"..
"It,s very disturbing" to continually watch the extreme self interest & greed that goes on amongst them..
& all with taxpayers money..”
by Andyman, Derbys
Saturday, January 29 2011, 5:58PM
“Javid, Beeston:
Are you calling me a liar, or are you just too idle to do a little research into the issue, considering the freely available information, even you could find something out about it from this considerable information.
You well know i do not post links to such information as my belief is that people do their own research and formulate their own decisions and opinions.
Considering many sitas have been operationally closed down you have a choice of sites to choose from. You couls even look at those with limited or restricted operating hours, which are also plentiful.
You could look at those turbines now modified to limit their maximum working speeds to prevent or reduce noise at higher working rotor revolutions.
Or if you really want to get technical you could look at the new formulae for rotor design and siting which was pubished last month. This gives such technicalities as rotor designs and air turbulance, and how the siting of them so closely together means they become less effective and generate more noise.
Baybe you would like to read the technical reports and reasoning for mounting them at sea.
Its all there if you can be bothered to look it up.
I will not hold my breath awaiting an apology though.”