Newspapers often speak of “political correctness gone mad”, “crazy government targets” and “idiotic regulations”. Last night, I saw them in action.
As Councillors flicked to the page of the agenda containing the Council’s Best Value Performance Indicators 2007/8, a large number of members were extremely surprised to find the following targets included:
[To increase] the level of the Equality Standard for local government to which the Authority conforms in respect of gender, race and disability.
[To increase] percentage of top-paid 5% of local authority staff who are women.
[To increase] percentage of the top-paid 5% of local authority staff who are from an ethnic minority.
[To increase] percentage of local authority employees from an ethnic minority community.
Turning on her microphone to express her belief that women should be treated in exactly the same way as men when applying for jobs with the Council (i.e. appoint the best person for the job based on their ability and experience), Cllr Becky Denby was informed by the Tim Williams, the Chief Executive of the Council that such targets are central government imposed.
Don’t get me wrong. Anything that encourages more members of the ethnic minorities, women or people with disabilities to work for Runnymede Council should be welcomed enthusiastically. My problem is with arbitrary, patronising and tokenistic targets being imposed upon the council in the name of “good value”.
There are plenty of genuine indicators of “good value” in the report, for example, the number of kilograms of household waste collected per head of population, the speed by which planning applications are processed, how quickly abandoned vehicles are removed and our success in reducing domestic burglaries.
We deserve to be judged on these issues, not pointless targets from an out of touch government.
