RCT Residents Action Group - Who & Why we are.

Initially the group was formed in outrage. Outrage at the moral and social bankruptcy that seems endemic in RCT County Borough Council. The straw to break the camels' back for me was the decision to cut the salaries and conditions of the RCT workers at the sharp end such as school dinner ladies; meals on wheels staff; bin men, and home carers whilst at the very same time protecting the over inflated incomes of those earning more than £42,000 and, of course, all Councillors.

Exactly as the disgraceful and cruel coal owners did years ago this Labour controlled RCT authority cut the incomes of the coal face workers whilst they themselves sit on increasing fortunes and at the very same time having the brass-necked gall to spout synthetic sympathy over their 'tough love' decision. So, once again those who could least afford it were left to pay the bill and those who can best afford it, just like the bankers have been, were simply let off scot free. That sense of outrage still exists and has indeed grown. There is an enduring and wonderful maxim buried deep in very the souls of Welsh people - that of “chwarae teg”; that is, 'fair play'. In RCT Council that soul withered and died a very long time ago.

It seems to me and a growing number of others that far too many councillors are interested in the ballot for just a couple of weeks at election time and their wallet for the four years in between. This, I must say doesn't apply to all and there are good councillors who truly represent the wants and needs of the people of their wards. They are however heavily outnumbered and continuously bulldozed by others who were sent to the RCT Council Chamber by the people to represent the people and not some faceless political party who make decisions at Canary Wharf in London. They equate the wants of their party grandees and script writers with the needs of the people. It is rarely if ever the same.

There are, of course other issues like a council leader having 3 or 4 jobs with a collective income of close to £100,000 per annum and being the highest paid councillor in Wales when there are kids living in abject poverty right across the RCT area he leads, or the spending of close to half a million pounds of our rates money on legal opinions when RCT has a legal department stuffed with lawyers. No money for this and no money for that, stony broke until for instance it comes to appointing a new departmental Head of Education who gets a massive £21,000 pay rise to £113,000 on appointment. Was £92,000 a year not enough?

An increasing number of people living in RCT see what's going on and are very angry but frustrated by a system that offers a façade of consultation but in reality ignores their voice because the decisions have already been made before hand. People are made to feel part of a consultation exercise when in fact they are no more than an audience to a decision already taken. Eventually they feel they can get nowhere and so turn away, give up beating their heads against a brick wall and become silent. Problem is, of course, they want that. They want our silence because they can interpret silence as consent. They will not have silence from us. They want meek obedience and they won't get that either. They have the upper hand for now; but it is just for now.

So to sum up; RCT Ratepayers Action Group is an alliance of people from all across Rhondda Cynon Taff who want change. People who want at least some semblance of justice and “chwarae teg”. Like minded individuals who are willing to break their silence and who want to fundamentally alter the existing system for the betterment and proper service of the people of RCT rather than just sitting back quietly watching the continuing ugly twisting of that system to over-service the ever multiplying needs and greeds of the few as it does now.

But RCT RAG is more than this. For instance, the police have just about abandoned our streets to CCTV Cameras. The 'eye in the sky' approach. Health care services are either being downgraded or withdrawn completely as was recently seen with the closures of the Minor Injuries Units at both the Rhondda and Cynon valleys hospital sites. These are just another two of the issues we are formed to address. It's not just RCT Council although they do take the biscuit.

Membership costs nothing and you are more than welcome. We are not in any way allied to any political party and we are very much like the Rate Payers Associations of the past.

For more information please contact me on; 07789761151 or 01443 650478 or graemebeard@yahoo.co.uk That's free too.

There is strength in numbers; there is far less when alone.

Graeme

There is a God! RCT Councillors and Pay Cuts.

http://www.aberdareonline.co.uk/content/there-god-rct-councillors-and-pay-cuts

This report came before full council in September and was rejected by the Labour Group when they had the power to adopt it there and then thus setting an example to the other Authorities in Wales and also joining those that they had already cut in pay and conditions.

Despite loud opposition (I understand Mike Powell had to actually leave the chamber under threat of being thrown out) they bounced this off to the WLGA when they could have and should have adopted it.

One of the other recommendations made was that poor old Russell Roberts, our impoverished council leader, becomes a full time leader and that he should drop his other financially lucrative jobs to concentrate on RCT alone. But that's not all. The report also says that he must take a pay cut of about £6,000 per annum down to a mere £52,000(ish). How will he manage?

The irony is making my day.

Merry Xmas Russell.

Graeme.

The Empire of RCT

Seems to me that there are two abiding and central principles in RCT (and I assume other authorities);

1. If you kick a problem around for long enough it will go away. Especially if it goes from desk to desk at warp speed and nobody takes responsibility or action.

2. You are just politicians passing through. We (senior staff in the main) are here to stay. Thus we will pay you lip service but tie your hands with red tape that you do not (cannot with some elected members god luv 'em) understand. So go away and leave us alone to do the job of governance. We will smile, coo and nod then do what we know is best regardless of what you say, do, or want.

It becomes a war of attrition if you attempt to change this mind set. If just those two things could be changed within the first few months of any new administration by elected members willing to put their collective weight behind it then it would indeed be a huge victory for the electorate.

Emperors need Empires and it has always seemed obvious to me that this is where the priority of local authority senior management and the collective political ego lays. Preserving their Empires and the continuation of the illusion of "you (the public) need me/us" must be perpetuated at all costs. But it is an illusion. Problem is with illusions is that people live 'within' them and too often accept them as 'normal' and even 'desirable'. "It is the only way" becomes the mantra. It is accepted as the conventional wisdom not through rigorous inspection, constructive critique and consideration of alternatives but simply because 'it is'. It's always been that way so that's the only way.

Removing RCT political Emperors through the ballot box can be achieved once every 4 years, and at nil cost, but removing administrative Emperors is far more difficult and sometimes an almost impossible task that can be hugely expensive. However, that's not to say it can't or shouldn't be attempted.

For instance Carl Sergeant AM's idea of the 'sharing' of senior staff between local authority's. This says two glaringly obvious things to me;

1. He (and others at that level - since it must have been discussed and debated in the Assembly Labour Group and I have heard no objections to the idea from any other political party in the Assembly) have at last recognised that senior staff in our authorities are currently working at far less than full capacity (part time in effect) and that they could easily take on the same job 'as well as' and not 'instead of' in a neighbouring authority. (If that's the case then why are we currently paying them full time salaries?)

2. Not one authority in Wales has even made any serious attempt to pick this idea up and go with it. In fact it seems to have died a silently strangled death. And that by design. Why? Because it doesn't suit the Empires and Emperors, that's why.

It has, of course, taken the usual route of being first ignored; then heavily criticised; kicked in to touch; and will soon be forgotten. And I know there will be those who will say that sometimes neighbouring authority's have different political masters such as RCT (Labour) and Caerphilly (Plaid), but since these senior staff are supposed to carry out their duties in an apolitical manner then it should present no problem. If the two authorities were also to share the cost of ridding themselves of one (say) Director of Education or one Director of Highways then it could well become economically feasible. But, of course this is not the way of the Emperors because "it might be me next so this has to be stopped right now."

Of course, acting in concert with that are the political Emperors. What Emperor would want to share his/her generals with another army? Especially with one that, on a political level at least, they squabble with regularly in their own Council Chamber sometimes over the most trivial points? Sometimes it's almost akin to Gulliver's Travels and 'eggs pointing up-vs-eggs pointing down' dividing the warring Lilliputians, the divide is so minute. It is for all that though absolutely unthinkable. No - the political Emperor also wants to create and maintain the illusion of the grandiose; of the 'important me'. After all, I must be important. You only have to look at the Empire beneath me to see that!

It's about time some common sense and logic were applied. We have hugely top heavy authorities nation wide 'managed' by the over-paid and under-worked, whose first aim is to perpetuate and legitimise itself. And that takes place on a political and senior managerial level. It has to change.

Graeme.