Keith Barrow was welcomed to The Wrekin last night at a most enjoyable supper.
He told us how Conservatives in Shropshire responded to the need to save £87 million in the four years of their first administration.
The council had become bloated and inefficient under the previous Lib/Lab administration. This huge saving was made, the council tax was frozen, and in some cases reduced, and no-one noticed any change in services.
This demonstrates the huge amount of waste present when £87 million can be removed without affecting the services.
Now another saving of £84 million has to be made – this will also be done without raising taxes or cutting services. This will be done by cutting bureaucracy, for example, following the reporting of a pothole it used to take 20 days to organise the workers to fill it in, then only 3 were filled a day. Now it is filled straight away and any other potholes nearby are filled as well, and, any nearby faulty lights are repaired at the same time – now 20 potholes are filled a day.
This is an example of how efficiently a council can be run, and should be run for the benefit of the community.