“If the Council really want to save money, they should look at their area housing offices where it generally takes 5 to 10 minutes to process one council tax payment. Efficient they are not! They could also look at those dealing with central heating breakdowns. My mother-in-law had six visits to solve a problem, during which, and after an examination by a British Gas engineer, the boiler was found to have been left in an unsafe state! They could also look at the road and pavement repair 'cowboys,' street masons they are not! There are many more examples of areas where money could be saved, but do the Council really have the inclination to do so as 'taxpayers money is a tanner a bucketful,' especially under Labour run councils and governments as history shows!”

“Well said Council Worker. I really don't know what all these moaners would do if all council workers suddenly stopped working. Forget trying to get through the the Council Tax office, no-one would be there. Forget trying to report fly tipping, rubbish in the streets, dead cats on the road, dog fouling problems, grass verges up to your waist, flooded school playing fields, unemptied dustbins, overgrown trees. Try to talk to someone about school admissions/free school meals/truancy. And if you're on housing benefit or get any type of rebate, e.g. you get the single person rebate on your council tax, and something goes wrong, or you have a blue badge..... well forget it. Then of course, you might want to get a building reg certificate on your nice new extension, bathroom, kitchen, etc., or you might want to get approval for an extension, or to make a drive, or to get your kerb dropped. Etc. etc. etc. etc.
Well so be it. Anyway, I do hope they get rid of the consultants and contractors first. They are costing us a fortune. Oh but wait, they come from the private sector. Silly me, let's keep the £800 per day boys and sack the "council workers" ! Some of you need to do your research instead of sticking your heads in the Daily Mail.”

“'All council services should be farmed out to the private sector so that we don't have to pay for their freeloading pensions and would get far better value for money'

Anyone who has had to use private services that were once public will tell you that value for money is a myth. Prior to the General Election, I asked Tories, Labour and Lib-Dems at public meetings if they could tell me one former public service that was now run better in private hands and none could. Says a lot doesn't it when we are now being told once again (as under Thatcher) private good, public bad? Don't let reality get in the way of con-dem political spin.

As for pensions most are not above £8000 a year (and many are around £4000 per year) and that is after 40 years of service. Like many Steven you've swallowed the propaganda and not bothered to check the real facts.”

“Apparently my Grandad once took a motorbike engine apart but when he put it back together he had all these little bits ('spares') left over. He didn't know what they actually did.
Guess whether the bike still worked?
Protecting front line staff is great, but it is all the invisible little cogs in the back that keep the engine running, and allow the frontline staff to actually do their work. Without admin staff the frontline people will spend all their time doing admin. Just because you don't see what a job does doesn't mean it doesn't contribute.
I guess we'll get to see how many cogs, nationally and locally, we can remove before we wonder why the engine no longer works...”

“All councils of whichever political hue are having to make savings. The threat of 1000 job losses is meant to scare the public into turning against the new government and into believeing that all labour spending was good. Good for who, exactly? Public sector workers are generally paid less but have better benefits that private sector workers. WORKERS mind you, not Hierarchical so called "cabinet" members, whod o they think they are? they'll be calling themselves senators next! Cut the uneccessary parts but keep the areas that TRULY benefit the less fortunate members of our City... may I say, any council who spends whatever thousands of our pounds on Chinese paving slabs which now look just as shoddy as those from anywhere in the UK deserve to be shown a hard (as in financially strapped) time”

“Is anyone other than the New labour diehards really surprised by this announcement.

Thanks to the dreadful financial mess bequeathed to us by Brown & Darling there is no alternative but to swallow a bitter pill.

Spending our way of this mess and getting the nation deeper in debt is simply not an option.”

“Crikey,people like to have a go at the council workers don't they!

I worked for LCC since 1987 & do agree with some of the comments on here and there is some room to trim or cut the budget. however, cut too much and you start causing more problems than before & that'll cost even more to put right.

In my opinion things got worse in 1997 when City & County split & Labour were elected.There was a growing emphasis on performance indicators and basically looking good ,this led to a big rise in the numbers of managers and empire building. So yeah, i can see why people want to have a go,but please remember theres some pretty good people working for LCC.”

“All council services should be farmed out to the private sector so that we don't have to pay for their freeloading pensions and would get far better value for money.”

“What would be interesting to know is what happened to the fund they were saving to actually increase staff wages across the council. LCC started saving in 1997 for 10 years. However come to 2007 and all of a sudden staff are facing a job evaluation, essentially to decrease their wages and no mention of this fund.

What happened to all this money? It does not just disappear overnight. Maybe Veejay Patel can shed some light on this.

I think all council workers should be on performance related pay anyway. Far too many people getting paid too much for doing too little.

I've said this before and i will say it again, 50% of the staff at LCC know what they are doing but can not be bothered and the other 50% dont have a clue what they are doing!”

“Council Worker, Leicestershire - Get over yourself....I'm sure every council worker undertakes all those tasks you've listed...working for the council has been a safe bet for years. There are many people working for the council who are dead wood but have not been able to be removed because of the tight council contracts and ridiculous fair employment policies...how many of these proposed cuts will be natural wastage of people retiring or job sharing? finally people who have enjoyed an increased guaranteed yearly wage who have contributed nothing will be sent home. I have worked for the council previously and on my first day I was told by someone who had been there for years that if you just walked around the building with a clipboard no one will ask what your doing. YES the front line service workers are invaluable but there are too many people on the council payroll who do nothing, lets just hope the right people keep their jobs.”