• NOTHING illustrates Westminster City Council’s warped sense of priorities more than the decision to withdraw the Royal National Institute of Blind People Talking Book service from 50 residents to save just £4,100 a year.

According to figures given to councillors, following the decision to withdraw services from people with “moderate” or “low” needs, only 10 residents were reassessed by the council as having “substantial” needs and retained the service which costs the council a modest £82 per person a year. The other 50 residents will have to pay the cost themselves or go without the Talking Book service.

For many the service is a lifeline, giving people a window to the world that the rest of us take for granted. 

The consequences of this thoughtless and heartless policy, is that 50 people will lose their lifeline in order to save the council a paltry £4,100 a year. How mean and nasty can the council get?

Contrast this decision with the largesse they have recently lavished on already highly paid management consultants. 

In June the council agreed to spend £960,000 on five “transformation and change management” consultants from PriceWaterhouseCoopers for the next 12 months, with the option to extend the contract for a further six months, bringing the total cost to Westminster Council Tax payers to £1,440,000.

Despite the council employing 14 staff on salaries of more than £100,000 a year and a further 40 earning between £80,000 and £100,000 a year, the council says that the consultants are needed because the council’s “senior leadership team will require strong change management support and will need to learn and apply the new behaviours they will require to drive through change at a pace that they have not previously been used to”. 

Have you ever heard such nonsense? The Conservatives have lost all sense of fairness. The decision to axe the Talking Book service should be reviewed now. 

CLLR PAUL DIMOLDENBERG
Leader of the Labour Group 

Published: 22 July, 2011