The Leader of the Opposition on Oldham Council and of the Liberal Democrat Group, Cllr Howard Sykes, has today highlighted one way in which Oldham Council could save money towards the £60 million savings target it has to achieve over the next two years.

Cllr Sykes said: “Quite simply it is this. All sixty Councillors and all of the thousands of Council staff have recently received through the post details of the Council Staff Discount Scheme operated by Vectis, as well as a membership card.

“Whilst offering discounts to staff at a time when pay restraint is in place is welcome, is it really the best use of ratepayers’ money to incur the cost of an all-out mailing when Councillors have their own postal pigeon-holes in the Civic Centre where mail is regularly left for them and when line managers could distribute envelopes to staff in the workplace by hand?

“Worse still, the mail-out was a blanket effort to every Councillor and every staff member. This failed to take into account those who have already signed up for the scheme. Many hundreds of staff are already signed up to the Vectis discount scheme.”

Cllr Sykes added: “Whilst I recognise that stopping this mail-out would contribute only a small amount towards the massive budget savings we as a Council have to make, it is indicative of a corporate mind-set that regrettably does not always think about the costs of carrying out actions and continues to act as they have always been done.

“At a time when we have just asked members of the public to help save £60 million in savings, this kind of action sends out a completely wrong message; we need to think and act differently. This lack of thought will have cost hundreds if not thousands of pounds when hidden costs as well as actually costs are added up. This really could have been a case of small change big difference!”