Surrey County Council scoops dubious award from Tax Payers' Alliance (From Surrey Comet)

Surrey County Council scoops dubious award from Tax Payers' Alliance

4:42pm Friday 3rd July 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

An organisation has accused Surrey County Council (SCC) of squandering more than £30,000-a-year of taxpayers’ money on propaganda, instead of using the money on improving its “inadequate” rated services.

The Tax Payers’ Alliance (TPA) website gave SCC its “non-job of the week” award on Wednesday, July 3, after the authority placed an advert for a “publications journalist” who would receive a salary of between £32,169 and £36,912 a year.

The job advertisement stated: “Your job will be to research and write for Surrey Matters, our magazine for the 1.1m residents of Surrey; Jigsaw, our staff magazine; and their respective online equivalents.”

The TPA claimed this amounted to the council “throwing nearly £40,000 into their propaganda department” and instead it should “stop funding non-jobs and get to work on council tax reductions”.

The Audit Commission gave SCC a one star grading - symbolising an inadequate performance - in an assessment of its services earlier this year, largely as a result of a damning Ofsted report on its services for vulnerable children.

Since the report, the council said its services had undergone a major restructure and it was determined to boost its record.

Tim Aker from Tax Payers’ Alliance told said he believed the council should improve its reputation by using taxpayers’ money on services, rather than self-promotion.

He said: “People don’t pay their taxes for the council to employ journalists to tell everyone how great the council is - they just want decent, affordable services delivered on time.

“It is incredibly frustrating for people to see their hard-earned money being squandered on glossy, full colour magazines.

“Instead of using taxpayers’ money to buy good publicity, the council should focus on providing good services and low taxes and then they will find that their reputation improves naturally.”