I’ll be honest - I love a swipe at Aberdeen City Council and, it seems, I’m not alone in this sordid pursuit. Lots of people enjoy a good dig at ACC. Taxi drivers, local comedians, pished old blokes in pubs, people who write in letters to the Evening Express and Press and Journal. A ranting tear into the council is very much in vogue for all sorts of Aberdonians. However, the problem that the ACC have is that, through a seemingly unrivalled and exceptionally gifted ability to appear fantastically incompetent*, ammunition for such criticism is provided on a completely consistent basis. For instance, whilst bored waiting for a tumble dryer delivery this morning, I typed ‘Aberdeen City Council’ into the Press and Journal’s search engine. It took me about 5 minutes to find a few gems...
There is a bit of discontinuity between the Scottish Government and Aberdeen City Council regarding housing. The Scottish Government have just pledged £6.7 million to Aberdeen to build new affordable housing in the city (http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1115777). This £6.7 million is taken out of an available £644 million plan to build 6,700 new houses in Scotland and a wider initiative to house all unintentionally homeless people by 2012. This initially sounds tip-top, but a bit below the surface there are some issues. My misgivings about the 2012 plan are pretty obvious and explained in an older post – the bar is set too high in what is such a complex issue. However, the real problems with the apparent attempts to address Aberdeen’s housing problem lie elsewhere. Considering the state of affordable housing in Aberdeen, the £6.7 million offered by the Scottish Government is an inadequate fraction of the entire figure allocated to Scottish housing – but when I think about putting such an amount of cash into the hands of Aberdeen City Council my knees begin to knock uncontrollably. ACC are not exactly helping Aberdeen’s housing situation in anything resembling an effective way. Despite more money coming in from above, the City Council is currently in the process of selling £100 million worth of sites previously earmarked for housing (http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1106406). At the same time ACC policy aims to build 36,000 new houses in the city by 2030. Confused? Me too. Aberdeen is one of a minority of areas that has seen the number homelessness houses rise in recent years – up 3% in 2007/08 (http://www.aberdeen-cyrenians.org/assets/files/pdf/COMMS%20-%20Newsletter%20Issue%2059.pdf). Ask anyone presently trying to get a council flat, housing association accommodation or an affordable private let property and an its apparent how difficult it is to find a decent property in Aberdeen. The City Council isn’t exactly helping.
If you got that council property you wanted, then the P and J had more interesting reading for your lucky self... (http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1110044). The statistics regarding ACC and council house evictions show a level of incompetence and wastage that is bordering on plain daft. In 2007/08 the City Council issued 718 eviction orders to be perused through the Scottish criminal justice system. Despite this, only 22 evictions were actually carried through by the Court. Overall, Citizens Advice representing approximately 20 more council housing cases, in January 2009, than they did in the same month last year. Comparing these numbers with the local authorities in Angus, the Highlands, Dundee and elsewhere and it becomes quite clear that something isn’t right. In fact, I get a headache trying to figure out what exactly the City Council is trying to achieve with such a high number of court cases against council tenants. Each case costs public money and considering the financial state that ACC is in and my lack of personal wealth, the waste of cash makes me choke a bit.
Aberdeen City Council's dire financial situation is well-documented. However, this doesn’t make it any less disgusting. Presently, the council is in the middle of a plan to bring about £60 million worth of budget cuts over a period of two years. Organisations such as Aberdeen Cyrenians felt the brunt of these cuts last year, with a number of front-line homelessness projects closing – in complete contrast to the council’s endorsement of the 2012 target. This year, the situation is much the same. The Aberdeen Learning and Disability Action Group are currently campaigning to halt the council’s planned closure of the Burnside Day Centre (http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1112592). The City Council wish to amalgamate the Burnside and Rosehill day centres, where 80 adults with learning difficulties are presently catered for over the two sites. ACC cite a combination of cost-cutting and the restructuring of the city’s Social Work. However, with the issue of the City Council’s debt, it is questionable as to how much the latter of these two reasons actually accounts for anything. There is a similar situation regarding the city’s refuge collectors, whose budget is being cut by £800,000 (http://www.pressandjournal.co,uk/Article.aspx/1108261). Although recycling as well as debt is cited by the council as a reason, the true motives of ACC again have to be questioned.
While all this cutting of budgets is going on, the council is taking conflicting action. The Press and Journal also had an article regarding ACC writing off ‘bad debt’ (www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/1107235). £3.5 million of debt is being written off by the council at the moment. Council Tax, business rate, housing benefit overpayments and council house arrears are all being defined as ‘bad’ and therefore written off. Surely, with how far Aberdeen City Council is in the red and with cuts taking place that effect the most vulnerable people in Aberdeen, the whole debt is ‘bad’. Defining some areas as 'bad', discounts the plight of the people affected in other sectors. Such a definition is counter-effective, insulting and pretentious.
I just can’t understand the method in the madness of the city council. There is no local authority in Scotland as completely useless and utterly incompetent. I worry about the psychological well-being of people who can sleep at night whilst spending the day acting in such a hypocritical, erratic and disgusting manner. It is never right that the chances of the least fortunate and most vulnerable are damaged by group of people who appear aloof and incapable of taking direct action. If I was as bad as this rogues gallery at my job – www.aberdeencity.gov.uk/xac_Councillor.asp - I’d be fired.
Get them out.
* I’ve replaced swear words with elaborate adverbs to convey my utter exasperation and dismay, don’t judge me on this...
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