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SALFORD MAYOR MAGAZINE COST REVEALED
 

Star date: 18th October 2012

CONNECTING SALFORD MAYOR MAG COST OVER £15,000

Salford Mayor, Ian Stewart, has recently sent out a 24 page magazine called Connecting Salford.

In his intro the Mayor writes about how "vital services have been affected by reductions in budgets". Obviously not the Propaganda Dept – as Connecting Salford has cost over £15,000 to produce and distribute.

Full details here…

Begin the violins…

"At the moment times are difficult and vital services have been affected by reductions in budgets" writes City Mayor Ian Stewart in his intro to Connecting Salford, the 24 page magazine that is supposed to have been delivered to every home in the city.

"I know that many of you will feel you struggle to get by" he adds, while on page 21 simpering "Budget cuts have been tough on the city, but the council is trying hard to minimise the effects on our residents and our frontline services…"

With another £35million `savings' to come, including £15million in pay cuts for Salford council staff, people might be slightly aggrieved to learn that the Connecting Salford magazine cost well over £15,000 to produce and distribute.

Costings for the mag have been disclosed to the Salford Star under the Freedom of Information Act…

Print Costs: £7,266
Distribution: £7,632.45

Total: £14,898

Plus the cost of layout, writing, editing etc, for which the Council states, "information is not held…The design/layout and writing was delivered by an in-house team and no specific costs were recorded against the resources used."

24 pages of hard core drivel, giving only one side of a much bigger story, doesn't come cheap in terms of time for the Council's `in-house' team. The full cost would be well over £15,000.

Also to add on to the total are the Freepost costings for the ten people who will return the baffling questionnaire at the back of the mag. Our fave is the question asking "What is your personal vision for Salford?"

One in which a Mayor doesn't waste money on propaganda whilst cutting public services perhaps?


See also previous Salford Star article – Mayor Ian Stewart Disconnecting Salford - click here

Concerned wrote
at 19:41:36 on 20 October 2012
That is so weird because if you want to speak to them you get ignored or by passed or your emails bounce back, im wondering if this is supposed to be a transparent service cos it aint if it is, what a waste of money that could have been put to go use particularly in mental health where there is a real problem unlike other areas
?
mary ferrer wrote
at 06:15:51 on 20 October 2012
I have just seen an ad in the Advertiser regarding the "Statement of accounts for year ending 2011" Any resident of Salford can go to the civic between the hours of 8.30am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday to gain access to the accounts. Did anyone see this in the Mag/Rag we all got in the post.It could make very interesting reading.Wonder what white wash is in these accounts.
?
Giro Frank wrote
at 19:53:41 on 19 October 2012
What a load of rubbish that was. I reckon 99% of them went straight into the recycle bin. 'Conecting', huh, is that the best gimmicky word he can come up with? Rubbish!!!
?
Michael Felse wrote
at 19:53:35 on 19 October 2012
My copy went into the recycle bin, simple because I do not trust Labour's lot to listen to a word we say. Take the Labour Mayor manifesto for example we just get cuts to lower paid, retention of chief of staff and a barrage of deputy mayors that nobody voted for!
?
Winston Smith wrote
at 11:52:19 on 19 October 2012
Good points: People are already saying what they want for Salford in the Salford Star forums and the Council is already ignoring it. All they've done is spent £50,000 on pulp.
?
council worker wrote
at 07:22:41 on 19 October 2012
This load of crap was cobbeld together by overpaid Scary Spiver (£200K per year) and her poodle Martin Vicker (£150k per year) because our Mayor and leader (have we got one?) hasn't a clue what to dod. The sop is appear to consult the public but so waht Spicer wants anyway
?
The truth seeker wrote
at 21:37:17 on 18 October 2012
It's a fuck1ng joke, total politically biased dribble. How much did the council give the Salford star in the interest of impartiality and balance? I bet it was sweet fuck all. Just to rub a big bag of salt into the wound Salford council gave a grant of £5,333.02 to M3 Magazine this year which really takes the piss because more than half of the M3 postcode sectors are in Manchester not Salford. So based on this fact i think Salford star need to be asking for a grant in the region of £60440.00 the supporting evidence being the grant to M3 covers 3 postcode sectors in Salford, and in the whole of Salford their are 34 sectors in total so £5333.02/3x34 makes for an across city concern such as the star a fair grant. P.S I belive Cllr Stone may be able to assist in the application. You can write to her at that big circus tent in Swinton her home address in not listed with the rest( she don't want the folks of Eccles ward to know she lives in M3 not M30).
?
MARK KRANTZ wrote
at 20:32:44 on 18 October 2012
the Salford Star is the real core not the mayors 24 pages of hard core drivel ...
?
Honest Harry wrote
at 18:01:58 on 18 October 2012
Winston you don't really think they will read any that get returned do you? I'll tell you now all they will do is put a blue recycling bin behind the door under the letter box at the townhall then when full(why do i find myself laughing) they will hire a private firm at great expence to empty it. The use of a private firm will be needed as all of Salfords bin men will be on strike or the dole if greedy b*stard Stewart gets his way.
?
Gareth L wrote
at 16:09:54 on 18 October 2012
Just think of all the Salford Stars we could get out with £15,000 telling the people in this city the TRUTH and not propaganda.
?
Winston Smith wrote
at 16:09:49 on 18 October 2012
This is an interesting admission by the council. It implies that they don't monitor the work or cost of in-house teams. How do they know they're getting best value with OUR money? Automatically assuming that an in-house team is best value, with no proper controls, is idiocy. They also fail to account for the management costs, e.g. the Mayor's time on this should be accounted for (presumably he did some work on it!?) which could add up to thousands, we already know his time is mega expensive. There's also the processing of the hundreds of thousands (snigger) of forms when they're returned - somebody will have to input the data into computers, analyse the data, store it somewhere, produce reports from it, have meetings about it, explain why they're ignoring it, etc. I'd be surprised if the true cost is less than £50,000. Oh yes, then there's the environmental cost (of landfill for pointless forms).
?
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