Falkirk Council SNP Group Press Release

Labour in Fresh Housing Shocker

Under fire Housing Convenor, Gerry Goldie, now faces further criticism following the publication of a damaging set of statistics of Housing performance since the Labour / Conservative Administration came to power in May.

Opposition SNP members recently called for the Labour member to be removed from his position following a series of publicity blunders by the controversial Councillor. First Falkirk Council leader, Linda Gow was forced to intervene to tone down calls made by the Camelon member to publish the Sex Offenders Register, against the advice of his own party leaders earlier this year.

However, it was Councillor Goldie’s description of Falkirk Council’s Housing Department as “bottom of the league” that really put the cat amongst the pigeons. It is understood that staff groups have approached their trade union with the intention of raising a collective grievance against their convenor, something that will cause embarrassment to the wider Labour Party.

Just days later it was revelled in a report submitted to the council’s Best Value and Audit Forum that since Labour and the Conservatives came to power in May the average time taken to allocate a council house has risen by almost 50% costing the council tens of thousands of pounds.

The council report shows that in the last quarter of the 2006/07 financial year it took the previous SNP/ Independent Administration 67 days to turn around a council house. This figure has risen to a staggering 99 days under the new Labour led coalition with the Conservative Party, despite there being no new legislation that would slow up the process.

SNP leader, David Alexander has pinned the blame firmly on the new Administration whom he describes as “lacking any strategic leadership” in a strongly worded statement.

Said Councillor Alexander,

“One of Councillor Goldie’s first acts was to bring in an extremely expensive private consultant to bring about changes within the Housing Department. He has certainly made an impact but not in the manner tenants were promised.

After seven months of Labour / Tory Administration we have a demoralised Housing staff being held back by the mismanagement of the service by Councillor Goldie and his private sector consultant.

The 50% deterioration in the letting of council houses is entirely due to the meddling of Councillor Goldie who as recently as 5th December boasted at the full council meeting that it previously took 3 minutes to identify a prospective new tenant but now it takes 67 days. These figures show just exactly how out of touch with the workings of the department the convenor of the committee actually is.”

Councillor Alexander has written to Housing Director, Janet Birks, demanding a report to the Housing & Social Work Committee outlining the proposals to improve moral within the department and therefore improve performance.

The SNP leader said,

“Demoralised staff, in general, do not perform well and it is clear that Councillor Goldie has lost the confidence of those responsible for delivering front line services within our communities.

What we need now is an end to the idle boasting and petty politicking and a concerted action plan to restore the level of service to that delivered by the previous SNP / Independent Administration.

It is also clear that the one man band approach to the delivery of Housing policy is not working and Councillor Goldie must adopt a more conciliatory approach both with staff and with other Councillors.”

There was other bad news contained in the report with most Housing statistics showing a drop in performance. These include,

Emergency In-Hours Repairs (24 Hours) Down to 92% from 98% completed in time.

Emergency Out of Hours Repairs (24 Hours) Down to 95% completed in time to 95%.

Urgent Repairs Completed within 7 days down from 87% to 83%.

Ordinary Repairs (28 days) Down from 83% to 79% completed on time