Showing the way

A considerable proportion of the electorate believes (if my postbag is anything to go by) that Shire Hall is entirely populated by lazy and incompetent officers and corrupt and incompetent elected members. Every time we do the annual budget consultation,

A considerable proportion of the electorate believes (if my postbag is anything to go by) that Shire Hall is entirely populated by lazy and incompetent officers and corrupt and incompetent elected members.

Every time we do the annual budget consultation, I meet a number of people who tell me that we could fire at least 20 per cent of the staff tomorrow without making any difference to the services we provide.

In many cases, they put this forward, not as a vague theory, but as an acknowledged and totally incontrovertible fact.

The same (or similar) people tell me that I and my fellow councillors are only in it for the money or for what other measures we can invoke to feather our own nests.

How nice it is, then, to be able to quote some better-informed people who see us in a different light. Firstly, I have just spent five days up in Cumbria (at central Government expense) "mentoring" the leader of Cumbria County Council. The Government and the Audit Commission believe that we have a good story to tell Cumbria.

Quite separately, Brian Smith, one of our deputy chief executives responsible for transport matters, has just been appearing in front of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee, explaining how Cambridgeshire has done so well in organising public transport that it has bucked the national trend in public transport usage.

We have also been defined as a "Beacon Council" on that subject.