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Borough Hall spends almost £2million on staff redundancies in 18 months
Costs of changing Bedford's council set-up
Council bosses have spent almost 2million in staff redundancies at Borough Hall since last year's shake-up of local government, according to figures obtained by the Times & Citizen.
The sum was revealed after a Freedom of Information request to Bedford Borough Council, looking into the costs of making the council a unitary authority.
Since April 1, 2009 there have been 45 redundancies, costing a total of 1938,160.90.
Bedford and Kempston MP Richard Fuller said: "That means the average redundancy package is 43,070 which, when compared to average wages in Bedford is quite high."
Last year's changes to local government in Bedfordshire meant Beds County Council was abolished on April 1, 2009.
The county authority had previously been responsible for cash-hungry services such as education and social services, but those powers were devolved to Bedford Borough Council and elsewhere in the county to Central Beds Council.
When the changes took effect last year Borough Hall had 2,196 employees, excluding school-based staff and casual workers. That has since risen to 2,279 staff.
Twelve staff are based outside of Bedfordshire.
In the first six months of 2010 the council spent more than 300,000 on staff travel costs, including school-based staff.
A spokesperson for Bedford Borough Council said: "The level of staff travel reimbursements is agreed nationally and the council reimburses its staff in line with these agreements.
"Many of these payments are incurred by staff such as social workers and planning and building inspectors, who all deliver essential frontline services to people throughout the borough.
"The council is also aware of the need to operate as efficiently as possible and all travel claims are subject to strict guidelines and reimbursements are only paid when these are met."
What do you think? Have the changes to local government cost to much is this the right price to pay for good governance?
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Monday 06 February 2012
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