Open letter to Jill Tuck

5.36.16pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 21st Sep 2009

Dear Jill:

I found your announcement about financial difficulties which you expect Cambridgeshire County Council to face bizarre on two counts.

Firstly it was a statement of what is obvious and has been obvious to most people for some time. In fact I might ask whether or not it wasn't obvious to you when you stood for re-election in June?

But more important and secondly, you outlined the challenge but presented no ideas about how you propose to address it. Isn't this a total abdication of your responsibility as council leaders?

Since you and your cabinet seem to be so bereft of ideas, let me help.

1. Sort out your own organisation. Put an immediate freeze on top level salaries, take one level of management out of the organisation and implement a real reward for productivity program for the front-line troops. And whilst you are focusing internally, implement a ban on new hires. The Council is full of talented people; challenge some of them to move to move to new, perhaps unfamiliar, jobs.

2. Sign up immediately to the 1010 challenge. Everyone knows that if you reduce your carbon footprint you reduce costs. It's a virtuous strategy. Don't dither, do it!

3. Work with the council's partners to save on back room costs. Do we really need independent HR functions in 6 councils? Do we really need independent accounting functions in the councils, the police and fire authorities? Do we need 5 separate Council Tax collection teams? Do we really need independent PR functions in the councils, the authorities, the several local Quangos and the NHS?

In fact do we need either PR or the Quangos?

4. Give the council a mandate to cut bureaucracy by 20%, to raise efficiency to private sector levels by mimicking at least some it its practices. Cut meetings by 20%, cut attendance at meetings by 20%, cut the length of council papers by 20% (shorten the texts, reduce the margins, cut down printing and postal costs) (actually I'd go further on this and say maybe 80%), cut internal car travel by 20%.

5. Finally: in source. Don't outsource because you lose control, delivery declines and residents get short changed. Invite others to come in and work under council management to deliver services more effectively and saving money. Focus especially on the not-for-profit sector and target, say, 20% of services to be delivered that way. Let's start with the libraries. It might even allow us to open more libraries.

Jill: the Lib Dems have lots of ideas which we'd like to share with you and the people of Cambridgeshire. Please contact me and we'll be delighted to help!

Yours sincerely

David Jenkins