Forum Topic

Hounslow Council employs 17 Press Officers - Why?

Why does LBH employ 17 Press Officers when it cannot pay for essential services?

Sam Hearn ● 13d21 Comments

Stewart - I found the Council's explanation extremely unconvincing. It would be interesting to hear other peoples views on this matter. But will be happy to post at a later date. For the moment just try and imagine a room full of 17 press officers - all working away doing what exactly? Try instead to imagine 17 more teachers in Hounslow's maintained schools teaching classes, preparing lessons, dealing with parents, governors Ofsted inspectors etc I am still trying to process the news that Cllr Raghwinder Siddhu has resigned as a Hounslow Cabinet Member but not as a councillor. He appears still to be part of the Labour Group.The law firm that he was a director of until a month ago has been closed down and he and his fellow director have been accused of failing to act in accord with a number of codes of conduct which govern the actions of solicitors. The practising certificates of both men has been suspended.

Sam Hearn ● 2d

Could it (today is International Non-Binary People's Day) be the DEI officer?

Denis I. Fox ● 5d

That's sixteen - what does the other one do ? Make the tea, perhaps.

Richard Greenhough ● 5d

One to readOne to writeOne to countOne to use phoneOne to postOne to keep an eye on the dangerous intellectualsTen to go to pointless meetings

Davey Harris ● 5d

Going to correct posting

Julian Pavey ● 6d

What you do is paste them into Twitter with all the extra links you can think of, and the council and those responsible, and tweet and retweet.You'll be surprised how that can work.I did it only a month ago for someone in Richmond, and a road that never got cleaned whatsoever and was on the what you would call tourist visitor route, now gets a full clean every two weeks.

Julian Pavey ● 6d

I remember well the Press office at LB Hounslow when I worked there.  It was 4 people. A video guy a photographer an admin/journalist officer and their motley leader on Jack Hand who wore Safari suits even in winter and got the nickname "Daktari" by the councils staff because of it.  Do you remember him Vanessa? He was what we call now a micro-manager and would not let anyone do their job without his approval so if like I was you were doing a public meeting to inform residents and consult them on policy I did the Equalities campaign and Going Local. Jack thought his unit should be doing it but after a short presentation and discussion between Jack and the councillors whose idea/project it was it was decided they needed someone else which irked Jack so much he would not co operate with anything at all. So I after an interview became a scale 5 (lowly serf) and was given the task of the publicity (actually designing the posters) doing all the press, local radio, printing and publishing including organising translation for all the leaflets and posters booking the venues and organising the sound systems etc.  We had bumps along the way.  None of the chief officers wanted me in their department so they put me in the CEO's PAs office which got nicknamed the revolutionary cell by the CEO himself after I had a bit of a barny with one of the dept directors who had done some work before I started and booked some sound equipment company costing £2000.00 for 6 meetings and as this was out of a budget I was managing and consisted of the largest part of I suggested we get the local music shop in Bell Rd to rent us the stuff for £300 for all 6 meetings. Dave Wetzel was leader went with my idea and the guy at Bell Music thought it was such a good project he came along and gave his support by bringing and setting up all the equipment then staying to work it for no pay. The only problem we had on the Going Local campaign was a translation mistake.  At the time the community languages we 4 or 5 prominent ones including Polish.  The Conservative Cllr for TurnhamGreen was Wlodzimierz Diemko.  He complained to the then Middlesex Chronicle that the translation of one of the leaflets in Polish was gibberish not Polish. The hilarious thing about it was the Middlesex Chronicle was the Grauniad of local papers and said in their article "Councillor Diemko, himself a Polo".  Cllr Diemko came to see me about it and he was a kind and thoughtful person with a self effacing manner and thought it was all quite funny.  He was often happy to join staff for drink in the pub after late meetings and chat about all things local government. The meetings were all successful even those that had been sabotaged by department heads who did not distribute leaflets for petty bigoted reasons which I think everyone would be embarrassed by now

Caroline Carney ● 6d

Sam- now that the Council has responded, this would be your opportunity to say why you think its reasoning is wrong and how you would provide necessary information to residents.

Stewart Jones ● 6d

Hi Steve - Good Question. The Conservative Party Councillors prepare and present a detailed alternative budget each year. They also ask formal questions that are debated at the main Borough Council meetings. In addition they take an active part in holding the ruling party through the Overview and Scrutiny Panels. You recall that between 2006 and 2010 a Conservative led coalition led a "root and branch" reform of Hounslow Council. Over £60m worth of recurring annual cost were stripped out the council's budget. There were NO increases in Hounslow's Council Tax for the entire period. The redundancies made by stripping out unnecessary tiers of management were almost entirely voluntary.

Sam Hearn ● 10d

Isn’t there an opposition party in Hounslow which can ask the question and hold  the ruling party accountable for waste of taxpayers money?

Steve Taylor ● 10d

Clearly overstaffed, one of them should be moved over to Fish and chip procurement.

Mark Frost ● 11d

They will have to push their counterparts in Ealing out of the way first!

Peter King ● 12d

The 17 Press Officers figure come from LBH's reponse to an FOI

Sam Hearn ● 12d

'A rose by any other name'.

Keith Iddon ● 12d

Would be very surprised if press officers ever got to go to Cannes as the last thing the council wants is local news coverage for the trip. Marketing staff on the other hand need to be there as they are central to the reason for the junket.

Felicity Caborn ● 12d

You probably won't be able to move for LBH press officers when the 'properties for sale' jamboree comes around in Cannes next time.

Keith Iddon ● 12d

Not even sure that 'marketing' figures very highly at LBH either. The council have venues that can be hired in different areas of the borough but don't seem to have a clue how, what, why or when to bring in some decent revenue to help pay for their upkeep.

Vanessa Smith ● 12d

I can also see that the fact that the currently planned venue is much more convenient for car drivers to attend because of its location.No,this is not ironical but cynical in view of the priority they have given cyclists and the lack of notice given to us.

Keith Iddon ● 12d

Is that specifically 17 press officers or are you talking about the wider marketing and communications function?I know quite a few people who work in public sector communications and they generally say there has been a reduction in numbers working in traditional press officer roles and an increase in functions such as social media managers and management of online presence. There are much larger number of ways to keep residents in touch than there used to be and councils are probably getting value for money from staff if they are effective and saving on the need to pay for advertising.

Felicity Caborn ● 12d

Yes,if they wanted to engage with people they would make it much easier by having the venue in a more central or accessible place.They have been in power far too long to be of any real good to anyone except themselves,certainly not to the democratic process.

Keith Iddon ● 12d

Just seen that there's another 'Cabinet Question Time' THIS WEDNESDAY, at the Gymkhana club in Osterley - not the easiest of places to get to either. Can we believe that these people have the slightest interest in what any of us think?

Vanessa Smith ● 12d

Good point - for instance the other week there was a showing of  'Wicked' in Redlees Park, most of us who live locally only heard about it two days beforehand! Some residents who live adjacent wondered why no-one had actually bothered to consult with them given the volume of the film, perhaps another area of the park might have been better?. There is no excuse as there are so many avenues of communication open these days. If it weren't for these Forums and others like Brentford TV we'd never know what the hell is going on locally. So the question is very appropriate - just what are those 17 people doing?

Vanessa Smith ● 12d