| Topic: | Re:Ealing's Park Rangers | |
| Posted by: | Steven Byrne | |
| Date/Time: | 23/11/10 17:22:00 |
| Speaking as a former Ranger for LB Ealing I can only say how saddened I am to hear this news. Many Rangers who are still employed by the council have been there since the inception of the Ranger service in the late 1990's, and it now appears that over 10 years of hard work (5 years of mine) is just going to be wasted. I fear that in a years time the impact of these cuts will be realised and residents in Ealing will be ashamed of their many wonderful parks and open spaces. I honestly don't think that many of Ealing's residents realise how fortunate they are to have such extensive and varied greenspace, which is why these proposed cuts to the ranger service cannot be allowed to happen. What makes this all worse though, is that these cuts are completely unnecessary. Ealing is, and has been for a number of years now, spending (or should that be wasting) the tax payer's money when it really doent need to be. Last year Ealing spent over £20 million on agency staff. This is crazy! Why not employ and train up permananet staff if possible, to help fill vital posts instead of bringing in these agency staff? Ealing also has a fondness for using expensive consultants in pretty much every department. No figures have been released yet- not surprising really as there is a cabinet meeting to vote on the cuts proposals on November 30th. I imagine though that it will be near to the £20 million spent on agency workers last year. As I understand it, all council services are expected to make 25% cuts. Cutting the Rangers down to 4 conservation rangers and 4 community officers is much more than a 25% cut is it not? The council is proposing that Ealing police can patrol the parks. Not sure how the police will feel about this though, especially as safer neighbourhood ward team numbers are also being cut back. Oh and so are Ealing's Envirocrime Officers. I would be interested to know how many management post are being proposed to be cut at Ealing? Not many I bet. How would they know which posts to get rid of then? Eugene - can I suggest that you perhaps speak to the Rangers service as they are more than happy (and usually very efficient) to answer any questions of concerns that members of the public may have. Best be quick though, as it will be extremely difficult to get hold of them soon! |