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Roundabout project now a dead end

7:10am Monday 6th September 2010 in


IT is fair to say Worcester City Council’s efforts to raise much-needed additional funds by selling sponsorship of traffic islands have not been its finest hour.

Regular readers will remember that back in 2008 the council linked up with specialist firm Immediate Solutions in a deal that aimed to raise £60,000 by encouraging local companies to sponsor roundabouts and other public spaces.

By the start of this year less than half that amount had been raised.

Then the scheme had to be halted when the council discovered some sponsorship signs had been put up without planning permission.

Now we hear of one firm that paid £3,500 to sponsor a roundabout but has now demanded its money back because its sign has not been erected four months after it handed over the cash.

And the council is considering taking enforcement action against itself because some signs are bigger than planning rules allow.

You really could not make it up.

We have said before that we do not object to the sponsorship proposals in principle because we accept the council has to maximise its income, particularly in these times of crisis for public sector funding.

But this entire project seems to have lurched from one foul-up to another.

Maybe it is time for the council to admit defeat and move on to other revenue-raising ideas.

Comments(13)

Joe the Tug says...
7:52am Mon 6 Sep 10

Pantomime season need I say anything more.

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Joe the Tug says...
7:53am Mon 6 Sep 10

Pantomime season need I say anything more.

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molecat says...
9:02am Mon 6 Sep 10

Joe the Tug wrote:
Pantomime season need I say anything more.
Oh, no it isn't!

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BarryMacG says...
9:14am Mon 6 Sep 10

Planning?, never mind planning permission, there was obviuosly a serious lack of planning for this scheme, full stop!!

Surely the council should get planning permission for a series of roundabouts in the city for adverts
of a certain template size, then the advertising company go out and sell to companies in the knowledge that the signs can be erected in a set amount of time.

Companies could look at a list of roundabouts available and choose.

The advertising company could even rename themselves to ' Compare the Rounabout.Com' ..........Simples!!!
!!

but sadly nothing is ever simple with the work of this council !

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Hymie says...
10:12am Mon 6 Sep 10

Surely linking up with Immediate Solutions was done to gain from I.S. expertise in this form of fundraising so why did Immediate Solutions not deal with the planning matters? And why did the highly paid Council 'Officers', as they like to be called, not know that planning permission was required to put up signs avertising the sponcers?

Joe public is expected to know the law on planning matters so why not the Councils own employees?

Any hope of earning money from sponsorship of roadabout displays has made so called 'Officers of the Council' look stupid and has cost the Council goodwill from willing would be sponsoring firms as well as money from streached budgets at the Council.

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Drico says...
10:28am Mon 6 Sep 10

If I had money to waste I'd be so tempted to sign up for this scheme and tell the council that my company name was 'One Way' and my company logo was a big white, RIGHT-handed arrow against a blue back ground...

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molecat says...
10:31am Mon 6 Sep 10

So the scheme has raised the grand total of £25000 per year. Is that the total profit for the tax payers of Worcester or just the fees generated from the advertising space? Two very different things. Once all costs have been taken into account, e.g. time of council employees, commission paid to Immediate Solutions etc., is there any profit left, or are we suffering a net loss over all? If I was in charge I could add a lot more than £25k a year into the council's coffers - I'd sack all the half-wits who thought up this hair-brained scheme! Only a complete idiot would think that the best way to save tax payers money is to have advertisments for a second-rate nightclub on every other road junction. It should be noted that is is also a nightclub that often illegally advertises in the city centre by placing signs over street bollards. Ironic that the advertising it actually pays also turns out to be illegal!

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rgdudley says...
11:36am Mon 6 Sep 10

Anyone seen the adverts on the roundabouts for the Circus that the City Council seem to be running?

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DermotItis says...
11:49am Mon 6 Sep 10

The morons working for the council who have participated in this farce will be paid a pension much superior to that I will get, and I am having to pay for it!

This council's ability to plan, organise and manage is zero. One day I hope to wake up and find that it was all a bad dream and I had visited Alice's Wonderland in my slumbers.

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brooksider says...
12:03pm Mon 6 Sep 10

Why don't they just charge for the signs that appear on Lamposts & barriers, plus how about charging those businesses who obstruct the pavements with A boards?

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daned says...
3:32pm Mon 6 Sep 10

One thing that the council could do is to do away with Worcestershire Hub. Has anybody heard of it? It's a joint effort between Worcestshire County Council and the local councils. It has a website which duplicates all the local council websites. It must cost thousands to run and seems to need five layers of committees to run it.

When I telephone the City council I am told that I am talking to the Worcestshire Hub. I applied to the City for a disabled car parking badge which stated that it was "issued by the Worcestershire Hub". I received a letter from the City refuse department which stated that it came from the Worcestershire Hub.

Who is running our City council?

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Dereck says...
4:45pm Mon 6 Sep 10

Daned asks "who is running this Council?". People who receive large salaries, lots of time off, good pensions and thick skins, with the ability to dictate what goes into which bin and fine anyone who puts it out on the wrong day. They can also refuse to empty it if the lid is raised.

All of which adds up to Masters of the Universe who cannot set up a pay to advertise on a roundabout scheme.

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cmot1967 says...
6:08pm Mon 6 Sep 10

Chaos and incompetence. 2 words often associated with council workers and this story is no exception. Why and how can council workers be so useless and make an apparently simple task heavy handed and complicated? Whether it be the city council or county council, it`s like a circus act followed by a comedy of errors. And in reward for they chaos they cause they earn huge salaries and generous benefits.
Many couldn`t organise the proverbial in a brewery and deserve to be named and shamed or even sacked.

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