Thursday, June 12, 2008

So-called 'major shake-up' of senior Bristol City Council Officers appoints same people to three key posts - shake-up it ain't!

1 comment:
Well said Chris from Stoke Bishop, commenting online on the Bristol Evening Post story 'Senior Brsitol City Council Officers Weather Storm', 12 June. I have considerable sympathy for his general thrust.

The story that 'Three of Bristol City Council's most senior officers have held on to their own or new positions in a major shake-up.' (yes the local paper did say major shake-up!) prompted Chris to say:

'The whole history of this council over the last 40 yrs has been one of incompetence and wastefulness. To reappoint present post-holders who have had nil impact on the general shambles that represents local govnt. in this area is astounding. You only have to look at cities like Leeds and Manchester that have had integrated transport systems in place for years to realise just how porly we are served. They seem more concerned in apologising for our history (not that one is needed) rather than planning for our future. Lets have a publicly elected Chief executive whose ideas and plans would be up for public scrutiny first.'

My own view is that these people are overpaid underachievers who are not looked upon with confidence by Bristol's public (correct me if I'm wrong by commenting on this post). Council leader Helen Holland talks of 'further excellent appointments' which shows how out of touch she is - with regard to these three key appointments the so-called 'major shake-up' has resulted in the same people being employed, so its not a shake-up at all!! A shake-up is definitely needed but this ain't it!!

Severn barrage: not cost-effective (now there's a surprise - NOT!)

No comments:
The Frontier Economics report into the Severn Barrage is damning ('Severn barrage is the costly option', Bristol Evening Post, 12 June). Statements like 'the barrage is one of the most expensive options for clean energy generation there is' and 'Considerable new evidence would be needed to make a large barrage in the Severn estuary an attractive option' mean that its simply not cost-effective when compared to the range of clean, green energy sources that can be used, including some that could be deployed to harness the tidal energy from the estuary. This should be no great surprise considering the massive, resource intensive and time consuming civil engineering exercise needed to get the barrage, in contrast with the rapidly developing field of new renewable energy technologies. Yes to renewable energy, including tidal energy, but lets have the most appropriate technologies deployed according to a properly planned, cost-effective energy strategy.

I've been plugging away with this message on the barrage for some time now! (see here for a whole string of postings with this very message about the dodgy economics of the barrage in them).