The penny has taken some time to drop but at last the Labour Administration at Ipswich Borough Council has decided to take the advice put forward by the Conservative Group at the budget debate in February to protect front line services by reducing senior management costs.
At the budget debate Cllr John Carnall the Leader of the Conservative Group put forward a proposal to reduce senior management costs which,together with some other economies, would have enabled the Council tax to be reduced by 3%. This proposal was rejected outright by the Labour Administration which was perfectly happy to reject the opportunity to reduce Council tax.
What happens three months later? Labour has announced that it intends to re-structure the senior management of the Council cutting seven posts and saving an estimated £500000 a year. If Labour had listened to Cllr Carnall these measures could have been introduced months earlier with additional savings being made for hard pressed Council tax payers.
It is to be hoped that the rumour currently circulating that Labour has only undertaken the re-structuring to raise money to put towards the cost of reaching a Single Status deal with UNISON- one of its paymasters- is not true.