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Concern jobs bloodbath in public sector may hurt Colchester

7:00pm Saturday 4th September 2010 in


COLCHESTER could suffer major job losses because almost a third of people are employed in the public sector.

The Government’s comprehensive spending review is due to be published in October and cuts of up to 40 per cent may be implemented.

While the borough has coped particularly well during the recession, according to Colchester Council, the situation could get worse.

The issue was highlighted at a meeting of the policy review and development panel on Wednesday, as the committee considered the council’s economic development strategy for the next five years.

Nigel Myers, enterprise and tourism manager for the council, said: “Colchester as an economy has been very resilient.

“It is a very diverse economy, but it would be remiss of me not to point out there are significant challenges ahead.

“A third of jobs are in the public sector and if we are facing cuts in the public sector, it will have a knock-on impact.”

The economic development strategy states: “The borough faces some significant economic challenges in the period to 2015.

“These challenges include the effects of any reduction in public sector spending, given the relatively high level (31 per cent) of public sector jobs in the borough.”

Comments(15)

5665 says...
9:38pm Sat 4 Sep 10

Why should the Public Purse be utilised in providing so many of these jobs 4 the boys and girls, they like the rest of us in normal land, can go fight for a crust in this world.
The stuff that rubs there nose in our faces, is the final salary two thirds pension schemes, if you are on £25,000 then you get £16,000 when you retire per year, what a joke when we are all paying for it in subsidies.
There should be cuts large and sway thing, we must get rid of 13years of Politically Correct Nanny State created incarnated posts.
Unfortunately everytime a recession comes about, they all go into jobs worth mode, stabbing everyone in the back all and sundry, including us mortals who pay them!
Its a double edge sword of pontificating that their particular service or post is really justified and needed coupled with good old fashioned B/S relating its not money for old rope...We do work really hard you know....Perhaps that is why we see them wandering around town in very long lunch hours on sunny summer days in the town centre, oh no it cant be our hard working civil servants, those are not CBC ID cards dangling around their collars and hip lines!!!

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usascribe says...
9:46pm Sat 4 Sep 10

spot on 5665! most of those jobs could and should be outsourced to create greater efficiency and reduce costs. the best government is a small government. cradle to grave paternalism is a recipe for failure

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Mr Anory. Jack says...
12:24pm Sun 5 Sep 10

Aye, your both right.

"Last year, Sue Barnett, interim director of operational performance at Colchester General Hospital and Essex County Hospital cost the NHS between £260,000 and £265,000, a report has revealed".
Another blood sucker revealed, just how many more out there like this one.
How many more fools that think by employing them, you are doing justice to your organisations, whatever they may be.
Sack the fools that employ those foolish enough to not realise they wont be noticed.
Get rid of the "its not our money" syndrome now, before it`s too late.

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usascribe says...
6:20pm Sun 5 Sep 10

MR. AJ: of course that is the problem... it's too easy to spend other peoples money with total lack of accountability. these incompetent fools think the taxpayer dollar is a bottomless well to be pillaged to bail out their wasteful spending year after year. one thing is for sure - no country in history ever taxed its way to prosperity

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don't you know? says...
9:46pm Sun 5 Sep 10

Of course to make such sweeping statements you must all have worked for the Council to know that the staff are wasters etc etc and taking extra long lunches. Tell me have you followed them and timed them and asked them if they have time owed, or an afternoon off? And does it also not mean you have an extra long lunch hour to be able to monitor the lunch breaks of others! It may interest you to know that there are many many dedicated Council workers for whom their job is more than just a job. Yes the pay is ok but the abuse received from the public at times over the phone and face to face is an everyday occurrence which the council workers take in their stride as they know the people they are striving to help are often in very difficult and vulnerable situations. The council workers do not determine the payscale they are on - that is determined by the higher powers. Please be mindful of who you cast aspertions upon when commenting on stories such as this. You are entitled to be angry about where your taxes are going but remember the council worker pays just the same taxes as you.

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Mr Anory. Jack says...
10:16pm Sun 5 Sep 10

It`s very ironic "don't you know?",
that a one time leader of ECC, who is now a fallen star, but one who advocated this very much publicised blood bath, but under different names.
I deal with hard working TDC employee`s at times, and know only too well the dedication shown "most" times by the employee`s, so to them, I sulute you all.
Like you, I get peeved at responces given by those employed at higher level pay scales, to questions asked in earnest, but answers given being flippant at best, condescending at worst. Also in your comments about taxes, this same "fallen star" was quoted as saying - his secretary "deserved" £45,000 per year expenses. One wonders just how much of that was taxed, being a council employee.
Life has always been shown as "them and us" but now perhaps, the BIG thems just may just be cut down to size, after all, you could ALL show you are worth £45,000 expenses too.
good luck, head down, we still need toilers.

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don't you know? says...
10:38pm Sun 5 Sep 10

By the way - I should probably add that I don't work for local or central Government and have no vested interest in defending CBC workers. I just don't like to see hardworking people lumped together with those that do abuse the system either with jobs for the boys or expenses scandals or anything else underhand. In any organisation, public or private there will always be the lazy ones, the ones on the take, the sicknotes, the bluffers but equally there will be the dedicated, hardworking and possibly underpaid and underappreciated staff. Be careful not to assume all public sector workers are in the first bracket. They are not.

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Anna Key says...
6:10pm Mon 6 Sep 10

Thank-you, don't you know, for correcting all this bigotry. I work in the public sector, which is full of dedicated people working hard for low wages. Not to say there isn't waste, all the money paid to accountants, the ridiculous salaries of those at the top, and the wasteful practices of private contractors who come into my workplace and charge extortionate prices for very poor work. And look at what these private contractors have done to the NHS, filthy hospitals and MRSA. But at the end of the day I know I'm performing a vital service. Something I couldn't say when I worked in the private sector flogging insurance that people didn't need.

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Taj says...
7:16pm Mon 6 Sep 10

Spot on Anna,don`t you know and,Mr Anory.
Sadly people believe the rubbish written about the local government pension schemes and think that all public sector workers are earning a fortune and retiring on massive pensions if only that were true.
I and many others like me regularly work through lunch breaks and do unpaid overtime ,we accept it as part of the job just like the generally poor pay and the constant sniping not to mention dealing with contractors who are leaching resources with shoddy work
and overcharging,but we are not allowed to name them because of confidentiality clauses

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e8joe says...
11:44pm Thu 9 Sep 10

There is a massive resentment building between the public and private sector because the private sector employees like me are now treated very badly, with the economic climate as it is there are no now payrises, no sick pay and as for pensions don't go there, then we see the public sector treated to the things we don't have and get annoyed. Why have I got to work 50 years while a police officer only 30?

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Boris says...
2:24am Fri 10 Sep 10

E8joe, when you and I started work the pay and conditions were better in the private sector, so that was what we chose. Others were more security-conscious and more public-spirited, so they chose the public sector. Now, the boot is on the other foot. In the private sector you are treated like dirt, you can lose your job at any moment, your pension scheme is suddenly closed or reduced, so the grass looks greener on the public sector side of the fence. But you can't take away conditions that those public sector workers have achieved through their unions. Contracts must be respected.

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Anna Key says...
1:08pm Fri 10 Sep 10

E8joe - A copper is hardly typical of a public sector worker. My pay and conditions are I would agree a little better than the same job in the public sector, but that's purely down to the public sector being the only real place where the unions still have some say. And I take home less than a thousand a month for performing an essential service, hardly a cause for resentment. By all means get angry about the salaries paid to the bosses and the accountants at the top, but we'll get no where creating divisions between low paid workers.

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e8joe says...
5:22pm Fri 10 Sep 10

I agree we cannot change agreements already in place and I was blissfully unaware of the deals many public sector employees had in place when I was younger, but the civil servants in charge weren't unaware, could they not see the sums can't add up. The post office £10billion pension shortfall soon to passed over to the state! I know a postman who has just taken their voluntary redundancy scheme at 53, he got 2 years salary and half pay index linked for life! with the figures he has told me if he lives to 80 it will cost the post office/state £350,000 and someone else has to do his job, what is the reason?

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e8joe says...
5:32pm Fri 10 Sep 10

Anna Key wrote:
E8joe - A copper is hardly typical of a public sector worker. My pay and conditions are I would agree a little better than the same job in the public sector, but that's purely down to the public sector being the only real place where the unions still have some say. And I take home less than a thousand a month for performing an essential service, hardly a cause for resentment. By all means get angry about the salaries paid to the bosses and the accountants at the top, but we'll get no where creating divisions between low paid workers.
I am not trying to create divisions between the workers, the goverment are doing that by letting the situation continue with public sector workers retiring on gold plated pensions at 60 and at the same time telling me to work an extra year to 66.

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Anna Key says...
3:17pm Sat 11 Sep 10

e8joe - I will repeat. I take home less than a thousand a month. And like you I will be working until I'm 66, because there's no gold plated pension for somebody as badly paid as me. Nobody can be resentful of my circumstances.
Governments will always try to create divisions between workers. It's what they do to so we start blaming each other rather than them.

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