back to article London's Lambeth council vows: We'll share ALL the data we have

Lambeth council has announced plans to publish all the information it holds online for residents to use. The local authority said it intends to go one step further than simply publishing spending above £500, as all councils in England and Wales have been asked to do by central government, and will release information such as …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    good

    A lot of information to put up, but if it really is everything, then good.

    I mean if a council only has to post spends above £500, how many do you think are spending more on double bookings to keep prices below that amount? Example, I'm going on a business trip to iuno, somewhere in europe. I fly over and return, the flight + return costs £525, to it gets posted. OR I can fly one way there, one way back costing £300 and £250. Overall it works out more but doesn't get listed.

    Or cutting corners, we need to buy a new blah, a good one will cost us £700, or we can get the second hand one which will need repairs of £80 every other week for £400. Costs the county more, but doesn't get listed because it's more smaller payments. A company I used to work for did this all the time because it was easier to get past management, we had an item of machinery which needed repairs every month or so, and not cheap ones, a couple hundered quid a pop. Or we could have bought a new one for £6000 or so, big payment at first, but it would have paid for itself within 2 years.

    *cough*

    Anyway I think if they do something like this, then it'll force them to avoid making these stupid mistakes which wind up costing more in the long run.

    Still wish they'd switch all their comps to linux though.

    1. LarsG
      Meh

      Share all Data

      But only after we have checked all the data we want to share with you.

    2. dogged

      Re: good

      Still wish they'd switch all their comps to linux though.

      And then retrain everyone, install alternative software (much of which will NOT be free, especially on support contracts, even the OS isn't free if you go RHEL for example) probably spending hundreds of millions in the process....

      If they'd gone linux right at the start (when, to be fair, it was pretty much unusable to the average Joe) linux would be cheaper. Right now? Now, you'd have to be some kind of religious whacko to ignore all the costs involved.

    3. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Boffin

      Re: good

      Given Lambeth Council's truly horrendous history of mismanagement and corruption (example: http://briandeer.com/lambeth-council.htm) I'm not surprised they spend half their time trying to look whiter-than-white.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: good

      > Still wish they'd switch all their comps to linux though.

      I can tell you with certainty that Lambeth council does use Linux. Not for everything, but some.

  2. Mark C 2
    Megaphone

    Optional

    Will it also show the 20% of council tax they are paying into their pensions?

    Nottingham? Someone needs to explain that they work for us and it is not their decision to make. Publish the damn data and get use to the idea that we want to know what they are spending our money on. And get rid of the leader of that council, he is not fit for purpose and has the wrong attitude.

    The council and all forms of government are employed by us to manage our resources while we are busy working / living our lives. The need reminding of this fact.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is this just formalising a policy of...

    ....losing USB sticks containing important details about the day-to-day operations of the council?

  4. Cliff

    Such transparency is only a good thing.

    I worked on an event for a certain city council - the level of absolutely balls-out corruption and vested-interest bidding was absolutely disgusting. Transparency can lead to public scrutiny and awareness of abuses like this - and the public won't stand for "err ahem you need to add a 'management fee' of £30,000 to this budget line here pal" twice I'm sure. I'll leave it to you to guess which city, let's just say it won't come as a shock.

  5. Borg.King
    WTF?

    Who's paying . . .

    . . . for them to display all this extra data. Shouldn't they be spending that money on other more needed services?

  6. cortland
    Thumb Up

    Two thumbs up

    Oy!

This topic is closed for new posts.