£60,000 for new consultants to identify cost savings in the Civic Centre! “It’s not a lot of money” being the Mayor’s reported comment. Only last year the Mayor appointed a “Lean Management Consultant” with great fanfare to also identify cost savings in the Civic Centre. What happened to her?

If Stuart Drummond and Paul Walker are so confident that these two new efficiently consultants can save Hartlepool Council huge amounts of money then why don’t they both donate 30% of their own pay to fund the new posts. The Mayor and Chief Executive could then make up their lost money from the savings the two consultants identify?

I was brought up to think that if you look after the pennies then the pounds look after themselves. Of course the Mayor has managed to find £800,000 (including another new Civic Centre Manager on £50,000 a year) for the Tall Ships Race, so I suppose £60,000 isn’t much compared to that. However, when faced with the threat of services being cut, libraries and sports centres being closed, pot holes in the road left un-repaired and inflation busting Council Tax rises are once again being imposed I suggest the residents of Hartlepool might want to ask serious questions about where their money is going.