£1million to Shorten Desks at the Council

Ealing's Labour administration in the spotlight over spending

A decision to spend £1million to make desks smaller at Perceval house has been branded as 'nuts' by Ealing's Conservative opposition leader.

Speaking to the Sunday Express former Council Leader Jason Stacey said the Labour led administration was wasting at least £13million on pointless projects including £5.5million on a new car park in Southall, £3.6million on upgrading computers and £1million on shaving a foot off the length of desks to squeeze in re-located housing staff.

Councillor Stacey told the newspaper: “You can understand why people are angry and upset, spending millions on new computers can hardly be a ­priority when the day care centre is closing.

“How can you justify the fact that the top three tiers of management, some 98 senior managers, keep their jobs when 400 people are facing redundancy?

“As for spending £1million on desks, it seems nuts. It may not be a massive amount, but it is an example of the sort of decisions that are being made.”

An Ealing Council spokeswoman has said: “We are looking to save millions of pounds by squeezing hundreds more staff into our main office building and closing others.

“We will have some initial costs, but these will be recouped in less than two years.”

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13 March 2011