Tory Council Waste

Hat-tip to Philip Gamble on his post highlighting the latest piece of Council tax payer waste that we as residents are forced to endure from the Medway Conservatives.

Despite massive cuts to education budgets and a Cllr Jarrett waxing lyrical about tough financial choices ahead, it seems the Medway Conservatives are still happy to flush our money down the toilet on advertising.

This blogger, who lives in Birmingham, noted the Medway Council ad on the left of his Facebook page several times over the past few days. It links to the recycling section of the council website. He lives 130 miles away from Medway.

Perhaps Councillor Jarrett is spending too much time shooting and fishing whilst officers spend your money on such schemes.

Why are Medway Conservatives spending council tax payers money to encourage taxpayers to recycle by advertising on Facebook?

Facebook does of course have a geo-locational option for adverts, but for some reason the whole of the UK now has a link to Medway's recycling changes.

Musings from Medway also asked friends in Manchester and Cornwall to check that they could also receive an advert on how to recycle from Medway Council, despite the fact they lived outside the authority boundaries. They could.

When voters are patronised by Medway Conservatives about tough choices around spending, they should perhaps control their own spending rather then hectoring and lecturing the opposition.

This is not the only case of squandering Council payers money.

Good use of tax payer cash?

Residents will have noticed the quite blatantly coloured political adverts and lamp post signs popping up across Medway. The colours are coincidently the campaign colours of Conservative Party. A pleasant blue and green hue.

As a Council tax payer to see Council funded signs on how to put litter in the bins is not only patronising in the extreme, it is a total and utter waste of money. I do not care what the colour, it just stinks of opportunism and more importantly, a waste of money.

Adverts like this do not put front line services first, they merely waste money at a time when the Council is claiming to the public that they are trying to cut back. It stinks of hypocrisy. It wreaks of partisanship and it serves the interests of no one but a few Council Cabinet members with career ambitions to fulfil.

When the Council is cutting staff and is squeezed for money it is perhaps in poor taste that they feel able to spend money on such adverts.

We all love Medway. Some more than others. I do not need a Council funded advert to tell me this. Especially at a time of austerity.