"Austerity" Countryside

[Quickthorn]

Plan to sell nature reserves risks austerity countryside..

 

nature reserves to be sold off, 40% budget cuts..

 

..according to RSPB, Woodland Trust etc.

 

Anyone involved in this area of work?

 

It's hard to guess exactly how far any cuts might go, because the extreme case is often quoted in advance to judge public and press reaction. When the cuts come, they might be less drastic, and present ed as if the govt. are doing us a favour: "it could have been a lot worse...:sneaky2:"

 

Anyway, I get the feeling a lot of the local grants for little schemes like short lengths of hedge laying and planting, small woodland management schemes etc. will disappear. Any maintenance of these sorts of sites under control of local authorities, FC, etc. will be cut back to the bone, as they'll be trying to save their own jobs.

 

Tough times ahead for contractors..

Edited August 14, 2010 by Quickthorn

[Charlieh]

FC/NE are on recruitment freezes with budget cuts of 20%+ they have pulled contractors of FC sites locally,

 

The National Parks Authority here are having to sell several of their big moorland estates as they cant afford to run them anymore,

 

Most small grant schemes have been frozen and any projects that weren't signed off aren't likely to happen, especially HLS agreements outside SSSI sites

 

its going to get worse before better, but i think if they try and progress with this using volunteers, which is also what the government want to see at a ground level, it will wreck the sector and in most case do a poor job that in future will probably make future operations harder in the case of woodland management

 

but hey, at the end of it those of us that ride through it will probably be better situated at the end of it for the future. I am still getting requests for work and surveys, but thats because i have a good working relationship with many local conservation bodies, and can deliver sensible solutions and realistic prices . Just glad i dont have kit on finance and huge overheads working in this sector.

[Bundle 2]

Plan to sell nature reserves risks austerity countryside..

 

nature reserves to be sold off, 40% budget cuts..

 

..according to RSPB, Woodland Trust etc.

 

Anyone involved in this area of work?

 

It's hard to guess exactly how far any cuts might go, because the extreme case is often quoted in advance to judge public and press reaction. When the cuts come, they might be less drastic, and present ed as if the govt. are doing us a favour: "it could have been a lot worse...:sneaky2:"

 

Anyway, I get the feeling a lot of the local grants for little schemes like short lengths of hedge laying and planting, small woodland management schemes etc. will disappear. Any maintenance of these sorts of sites under control of local authorities, FC, etc. will be cut back to the bone, as they'll be trying to save their own jobs.

 

Tough times ahead for contractors..

 

Its quite disconcerting...and this from a govt that touted themselves as "The Green alternative".

Despite lacking confidence in the process I posted this recently and perhaps you'd be interested to reply yourselves...? Im not sure I know how to respond to all the questions it poses....They got a cheek IMO to put this out to consultation at the same they plan selling off .

Shameless hussies!!

White paper-biodiversity:consult.pdf

[Saw-sick Steve]

It's certainly going to get worse before it gets better.

Personally, I think the govt. are using the current financial crisis as a once in a lifetime opportunity to drive through a radical right wing agenda, and in the process dismantle some sectors they consider ''superfluous'' by selling off the profitable parts to their friends in the city - reducing to a rump such bodies as the F.C and Nat. Eng.

''Just glad i dont have kit on finance and huge overheads working in this sector. ''

Amen to that, Charlieh, glad all my kit is bought and paid for.

[Quickthorn]

It's certainly going to get worse before it gets better.

Personally, I think the govt. are using the current financial crisis as a once in a lifetime opportunity to drive through a radical right wing agenda, and in the process dismantle some sectors they consider ''superfluous'' by selling off the profitable parts to their friends in the city - reducing to a rump such bodies as the F.C and Nat. Eng.

 

I think you're spot on there, Steve, that's exactly what I think they're trying to do.

 

From what I've heard of the FC, there are some areas that are having to sell off certain bits and pieces to make up the maintenance budget for whatever's left, so the estate's slowly wasting away anyway. In this area, it's just not worth tendering for FC maintenance work now - you can base a tender on indicative prices that they themselves publish for the benefit of people claiming WIGs and such-like, and they'll just laugh at you.

 

its going to get worse before better, but i think if they try and progress with this using volunteers, which is also what the government want to see at a ground level, it will wreck the sector and in most case do a poor job that in future will probably make future operations harder in the case of woodland management

 

I think this is true. Also, some of the "volunteers" aren't as willing as others - I've seen a steady increase in the use of working parties made up of people on probation or doing community service, and it's the sort of thing this new government has been mooting as well.

[Bundle 2]

Mmmm...seems to me we gonna end up in a pickle. (Oh, we already are...) Personal finance aside for a moment, how can successive govts sign legally binding agreements and then dismantle anything & everything that plays it's part in these agreements in the name of "economy drive"? We will end up seeing all that hard work and dosh invested going to rack & ruin only to be asked to spew out £x dollar in fines for failing to meet EU directives....

I wish it were a "once in a lifetime" but I already had to witness two recessions at the hands of yo-yo politics and I am utterly gobsmacked that my neighbours, your neighbours, voted this govt in.

I gotta go have a lie down in a dark room!

 

 

[Bundle 2]

Interesting times......

 

Nottinghamshire and Buckinghamshire investigate country parks asset transfer | Arboriculture News | Horticulture Week

 

 

Quote: "The public should be reassured that maintaining the quality of our services is paramount."

 

One wonders whether it costs to monitor work thats contracted out....? Why they cant be more competitive in house I dont know. And then there's the whole issue of contractors buying work by underbidding only to find credit is in shorter supply than anticipated and oops. we've gone bust...Sorry about your parks folks ( and all the taxpayers dollar spent creating them in the first place....jeez!

Edited August 18, 2010 by Bundle 2

[Quickthorn]

It's looking like a repeat of the 80s, when everything had to be put out to compulsory competitive tender. The idea was supposed to be that the private sector was more "efficient" than the public sector, but in actual fact, the savings were made by cutting the pay and benefits of the people who physically did the work. In a lot of cases, their jobs were shed, and those people ended up working for whatever company had won the contract, only on reduced pay, poorer terms etc. I can see this happening all over again, with all the work going to the cheapest outsourcing service provider that can stay solvent long enough to complete the contract.

 

From my experience, if local authorities want to save money, they ought to first start looking at thinning out their middle ranks and above. There's more than enough dead wood there.

[APC]

Yeah. I forsee a loss of jobs or at least paycuts, and a tidalwave of volunteers and schemies in need of babysitting. Training opportunities will be reserved for the long-term unemployed. Countryside services in local authorities will stagnate and fall behind in work schedules and the employees will get the blame. Sites will scrub over and become less favourable. Everything will still need to be done though and will ultimately cost more.