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TWO CONSULTANTS PAID £250,000 TO MANAGE SALFORD CYCLE AND TRAFFIC SCHEMES
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Star date: 26th February 2021 HUGE SALARIES FROM PUBLIC FUNDS TO MANAGE SALFORD INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS Salford City Council is to continue paying infrastructure firm, Aecom, around £250,000 for two project and programme managers to handle a further twelve months of walking, cycling and traffic infrastructure projects, including Chapel Street, Trafford Road and the New Bailey Gateway. While funding for the consultants paid by Salford Council can be claimed back from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, even Council officers state that "there is still a cost to public funds, alternative employment options could reduce the overall costs". Full details here...
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Salford City Council has £70million worth of walking, cycling and traffic management projects in its regeneration areas, courtesy of the Growth Deal and the Greater Manchester Mayor's Cycling and Walking Challenge Fund – but it admits that there is "currently insufficient resource available within the existing team to deal with the work required to manage the programme/project workload". Schemes include Trafford Road, New Bailey Gateway, Chapel Street East, Gore Street and the Chapel Street/Trinity Way Junction. For the past year Salford Council has paid infrastructure company Aecom around £250,000 for two consultants, or 'project and programme managers', presumably at £125,000 each, to oversee the schemes. Now the Council is about to renew the contract, if approved next week, for a further twelve months. Salford Council is to pay for the costs of the consultants which it can claim back in arrears from the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, or GMCA. Even so, its own HR officer warns that "Whilst all costs are recoverable through the GMCA there is still a cost to public funds, alternative employment options could reduce the overall costs". Aecom, self-described as the "world's premier infrastructure consulting firm", is classed by Salford Council as an SME, or Small and Medium Enterprise, even though its worldwide revenue is $3.3billion. The only social value offered in the Council report on the contracts is that "the project managers being supplied are based in Greater Manchester" and that "one is a Salford resident". It also states that Aecom is based in Greater Manchester, and it does have offices in Manchester – as well as in Hong Kong, India, Australia, Singapore, LA and London... "Without extending the resource currently in place, the significant risk is that the Council does not have the ability to deliver the infrastructure projects against which it has already secured funding" the report concludes. Which certainly beggars a few questions...
See also previous Salford Star article: Cost of Repairing Chapel Street Mushrooms to over £1.5million - click here
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bob wrote
at 10:21:31 on 28 February 2021 |
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| All this talking about bike lanes got the girlfriend thinking.She wants to get rid of my old bike out of the back room on the grounds I have not used it for years.So, I have decided I am going to use it a bit. As soon as our councilors start cycling, I will be there following in their good example. I would love to see Dennett and Merry on a bike. In the last couple of years ,Merry has seemed to shed a few kilos, and it seems to be doing him a bit of good, cyclling would help him get rid of a few more. Dennett,on the other hand seems to be putting a few kilos on. You can't see it in his face like Merry, but he seems to be piling the weight on round his belly and arse, like all penpushers do.just look at the pictures of some of our councilors. A lot of them are heavy smokers and drinkers. Just think of the health benefits if they gave up their bad ways and started cycling. Think of the good example it would set our people. |
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pete wrote
at 23:17:58 on 27 February 2021 |
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| Why not give consultants a chance to reduce car dependency and to devise ways to increase rates of walking and cycling so that congestion and harmful pollution are reduced?
Council 'officers' have been trying for years and have failed miserably.
To raise the money to pay the consultants some of those 'officers' should be sacked. |
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Bob wrote
at 13:58:42 on 27 February 2021 |
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| While we are on about all this walking ,cycling and public transportism and metro linkism , can we not spare a little bit of column space for Jack Barnes. Yesterday ,in the inquest into his death, the coroners court ruled that Jack Barnes had been unlawfully killed.He had been involved in an incident 4 years ago which involved 4 Metro link CSR security officers from Manchester. This incident is remarkably similar to one which happened in America last year, which was widely reported all round the world. The incident in America is remembered at sporting events on a regular basis . The 4 police officers who were involved in the American case have been charged in relation to the matter, and will come up for trial in due course. The case of Jack Barnes, like the one in America, was also recorded on video for all to see. To date, nobody has been charged in relation to any offence which may or may not have been committed in the Jack Barnes case. Why is it, that something that happens in America is widely reported here with much public outcry, yet when the same thing happens here, nobody says a word. i recall both Burnham and Dennett both saying something about the case in the states, but they have nothing to say when the same things happen on their own doorstep. Anyway, why should I bother, I never travel on that ramshackle metro line, its full of yobs, and it seems not only the passengers. |
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The Watcher on the shore wrote
at 09:29:47 on 27 February 2021 |
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| Mr.Lavelle,
It's pretty obvious ,"Why the Manchester City connection ?" It's the way out of Salford !
I wonder if all those myths about tunnels from the Kersal cell etc were really just the residents of Salford planning the great escape ! |
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paul kelly wrote
at 00:26:48 on 27 February 2021 |
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| Talking of big projects the last residents of mocha parade shopping centre were told to vacate all the shops by the end of December 2020 being informed that work would commence in January mocha parade is still standing no works commenced. However some hooligan elements have cut down all the trees near the food bank and destroyed the grass area where the Canada geese rested and sat and foraged for food it was the only green spot in the whole area well away from the derelict buildings which were supposed to have been demolished 2 months ago the little area destroyed was an haven for the geese and safe for the chicks that area should have been left until after the nesting and rearing season who ever gave the go ahead to vandalise that area is a total wretch. |
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Hydrojw wrote
at 22:49:29 on 26 February 2021 |
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| SME - Subject Matter Expert |
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Bob wrote
at 20:10:42 on 26 February 2021 |
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| Its all a filthy tory idea all this cycling lark,just to keep the working class where they should be, riding bicycles to work. Look how the torys try to promote cycling. Buffoon Boris, Cammeron, Mitchell, Norman Tebbitts Dad.You wont see good labour politicians like Merry and Dennett riding bikes do you? Do any of our councillors ride bikes? You bet your balls on it they don't. |
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Joe Muggins wrote
at 19:30:46 on 26 February 2021 |
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| It appears to most people that a small number of councillors decide what goes where, then presumably the rest of the ruling party give it the go ahead.
If you did a Q & A session with some of our rulers they wouldn’t know where many of the local communities are, but we will have footpaths into Manchester and a lay-by near the Cathedral. |
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Mark lavelle wrote
at 15:57:12 on 26 February 2021 |
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| Why is this all planned for the Manchester City centre connection. What about the rest of Salford? Who chooses where |
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