East Midlands region says - cut waste not services‏

UNISON's East Midlands region has launched a hard hitting campaign to save local government jobs and services. The first priority of a union in a recession is to defend the livelihoods of members. There is now added urgency as cuts proposals surface in all parts of the UK.

In East Midlands the regional local government service group is exposing the wasted money spent by councils on consultants and agency workers - an endemic problem across local government and one which must be tackled by every branch and region.
http://unison-em-locgov.blogspot.com/2009/10/cut-waste-not-services.html

East Midlands UNISON has made Freedom of Information requests to all 45 councils in the East Midlands asking how much they spend on agency workers and consultants and they are now ready to expose their findings through the media.

There should be an article about agency workers and consultants' costs in the Nottingham Evening Post on Saturday, followed by a piece on the BBC East Midlands Politics Show. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/regions/east_midlands/8299539.stm

Then, from Monday, they are are hoping for some coverage in the regional press, local TV and radio. They will be publishing the agency worker and consultants' costs on this blog sometime late on Monday. So if you want to know how much your council spent keep an eye on the blog.

The Tories say there needs to be cuts to services and wage freezes to"balance the books." East Midlands UNISON's findings show that councils shave plenty of scope to be cutting waste rather than jobs and services.