Did council meeting cost more than £400 a minute?

Yes

The nibbles must have been fantastic!

I'm gobsmacked that the meetings held in the atrium when it costs £12,500 a time to turn into a "chamber"? That is an absolutely appalling waste of money. Putting aside for one moment the fact that you're talking about 13 households' annual council tax bill, how can it cost that amount of money? The council would achieve "best value" by hiring meeting space in a plush meeting venue or even a five-star hotel.. I can recommend one that provides delicious lunch, copious quantities of soft drinks (unlimited) and lovely coffee for much, much less than £12,500 a pop.

"While the Lib Dems continue to push their negative message, Southwark's Labour council will get on with delivering on our manifesto pledges for the borough, including 11,000 new council homes, affordable childcare and free swimming and gyms for all residents."

... Yes. You can definitely bet your life on that happening.

I guess the meeting got some press attention so it must have felt like good money spent. It is not as if the Council could have given the news via a press release or something.

Since residents will have no say in the Council's decision from now on, it would at least have saved some time

... I mean, authorizing a rooftop bar at the H10 hotel (isn't there an alcohol saturation zone nearby?) after a lengthy debate should tell you were the residents sit in the order of priority for our Councillors.

Disgusting...and every month I struggle to find my council tax payment ( as do thousand others!) Why can't they have their meetings in a variety of rooms available in council buildings? oh i forgot they sold them off..
How do they justify such expense? A tea lady and a plate of digestive biscuits did the trick when I was working there. Even at lehmans in canary wharf meetings never cost that!

I wonder when the person responsible for a plan that costs twelve thousand pounds to move some tables and chairs around for regular council meetings will admit that they have shares in Carter Pattersons' Tooley Street branch.
THe only logical explanations can be:
Bribery,
Corruption.
Extreme stupidity,
or a permutation of all three.
Council tax payers pay for council services not for moving tables and chairs around until The Ship sinks.

Thebunhouse wrote:

Extreme stupidity

is most likely with procured contracts for supply of services that our Party Political councillors don't bother to read themselves and delegate to others who can also be hopeless and without any concept of what reasonable value might be and this Southwark Labour Fairer Future Principle becomes perverse:
"Spending money as if it were coming from our own pocket"

Southwark Labour, having had FOUR YEARS NOW, have shown that their main concern is themselves and what little power they can acheive, and when it comes to spending money they do indeed waste our money like they waste their own.

Now I know why Community Councils go on for so many hours - it gets much cheaper per minute. We'll have to sit and listen to just about anybody except ourselves, the resident audience, speaking.

Who decided to move to Tooley Street in the first place? The meetings at the old Town Hall were just as expensive and were more frequent, at least T-S is multi-functional. And again I ask, which administration moved Southwark Council to Tooley Street in yet another of their north of the borough hand outs?

The food costs about £7 per head. The sound system etc is the most expensive part of it and the security and the overtime for all the staff. Do an FOI.

Dear Professor,

ProfessorPlum wrote:

"in yet another of their north of the borough hand outs?"

Have you been north of the borough lately? If so you must have paid attention to all the construction work that goes around there since this part of town has been handled part & parcel to property developers so they can maximize profits. It is quite hard to miss.

Hand outs in the north? The north has actually seen its stock of social housing being sold off... and if the Council is making money from this, it is surely not spent there.

Think again: where do the votes that support the current administration come from? Got it? ... that's where the money is being spent.

Seriously, where do you live...