YP Letters: Ethos of public service lost with the greed of managers

From: Andrew Fisher, Goodrick Close, Harrogate.
The leadership of West Yorkshire Combined Authority managing director Ben Still (centre) is in the spotlight following an investigation into his organisation's financial management.The leadership of West Yorkshire Combined Authority managing director Ben Still (centre) is in the spotlight following an investigation into his organisation's financial management.
The leadership of West Yorkshire Combined Authority managing director Ben Still (centre) is in the spotlight following an investigation into his organisation's financial management.

FURTHER to your in-depth investigation earlier this month into the extravagant spending systematically carried out by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, well done for highlighting the continued waste by such quangoes.

Several years ago I had dealings with Yorkshire Forward and CO2Sense.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

I was not impressed by either organisation, although Yorkshire Forward – whose chief executive Tom Riordan now runs Leeds Council – did help establish some business start-ups and established companies that needed some guidance.

The management ability of many of the people who were responsible for the allocation of significant sums of money in the form of grants was staggeringly out of touch and you came away with the impression of a huge amount of missed opportunities and waste.

Sadly West Yorkshire Combined Authority is symptomatic of large organisations being given funds to allocate to transport infrastructure which only a fraction actually gets spent on practical solutions.

Can someone explain how if the head of an organisation claims to be worth a salary level of £175,000 per annum (more than Theresa May), and a fellow director who is paid £60,000 for 12 days per month, why do they require a further £100,000 to be wasted on ‘executive coaching’?

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They should not if they’re good enough to justify such high salaries.

Corporate credit cards should be banned from such organisations – especially when they are used for ‘networking’ in the south of France and 
way-over-the-top ‘business lunches’ in Mayfair.

For heaven’s sake, we have some of the best, and good value for money eateries outside of London in Yorkshire.

Sadly, one of the reasons the NHS is always requiring more and more of our hard-earned taxpayers’ cash is precisely due to significant layers of management on frequent jollies, and the overstretched staff who actually run the NHS being told there will have to be cuts.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Is there any wonder the electorate are very reluctant to give the green light to devolution of powers to even more quangoes who then cream off large amounts of cash for their own benefit?

I despair for this country at times, so many people seem to be hell bent on feathering their own nest, at ordinary people’s expense.

Where is the ethos of public service for the public good?