Edinburgh Sucks! | Still getting it wrong

City Council

Still getting it wrong - even with consultants

By The Basa ⋅ October 15, 2005 ⋅

The city council as with other councils across the country are spending millions of pounds on consultants and outside advice to help them get it right. It seems that Edinburgh haven’t got the right consultants because of the amount of things they are getting wrong.

Everyone knows about the shameful brand consultants who gave the city a new logo of “Inspiring Capital” but forgot to register the domain name. In fact they registered a totally different domain name.

At Edinburgh City Council, the typical annual spending on consultants is now £2.8m a year, compared with £1.8m in 2000. Last year Edinburgh spent £4.5m on outside advice, justifying the rise by saying that the increase was due to a large number of new projects such as plans for trams in the city.

These expensive pesky trams are costing money all over the place. At first one of the lines was cut from the proposal because the council got truly gubbed by the electorate in the congestion charging vote and …..

Last month, The Evening News revealed the cost of reviving trams on the Capital’s streets has soared by almost £340 million to £714m after initial estimates for the two routes failed to take inflation into account.

The rising costs prompted fears that council tax bills might increase and TIE admitted it would have to ask the local authority and the Scottish Executive for more cash.

We think companies that conduct real business and go for return on investment would be more careful when choosing their consultants.

More Info: Council spending on consultants rockets in spite of extra staff
Time to trash the trams say business chiefs