EasyCouncil in the snow
As we all know, the London Borough of Barnet has dubbed itself ‘easyCouncil’ after taking a leaf out of budget airlines’ book and providing a very basic service as standard and charging for all manner of extras.
Let us look at another budget airline, as reported in the London Evening Standard, as it copes with a stressed situation.
Mary Bello, 45, and her daughter Vicky Perez, 16, were being forced to spend a second night at [Gatwick] airport after their Ryanair plane to Barcelona was cancelled yesterday.
Ms Bello said: “Ruanair told me the first flight they could put me on was tomorrow even though there are seats available for a flight today. They said they were allowed to hols some back to sell on. It seems they’re just trying to make money out of this situation. It doesn’t seem right
Emphasis added.
I quite agree with Ms Bello. One wonders what the LB Barnet version of this would be – we have enough salt to grit your roads, but we’re holding some back to grit the roads of people who can pay for it?
easyCouncil or Ryanbarnet is a nice catch-phrase, but there is a world of difference between taking a flight you don’t absolutely have to take and the services people expect from their council.
xD.
January 7th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
Oh please. That’s an absurd assumption, and you know it.
Chris´s last blog: The cost of votes
January 8th, 2010 at 2:20 pm
Is it really, Chris? LB Barnet said they wanted to be like budget airlines. I’m making a comparison with what a budget airline does – keep fees (taxes) down by charging for everything. Technically, a better comparison would have been that LB Barnet would have cleared your snow in two days, but if you wanted it done today you had to pay extra. Nevertheless, the point stands.
xD.
Dave Cole´s last blog: EasyCouncil in the snow
January 8th, 2010 at 6:30 pm
What you are implying through your comparison is that a council based on buget airlines is trying to make money for themselves. Rather than the truth, which is that they want to save money for the people.
Chris´s last blog: A view of Britain the BNP must love
January 8th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
That’s not quite what I’m implying, although I take the point that I could have been clearer. A local council cannot, of course, make a profit (although it can run a surplus to boost reserves). Normally, the effect of less being spent on services, ceteris paribus, is a reduction in the rate. My argument is that the low-cost airline model cuts too deeply into services. It’s true that when I fly easyJet for work, I don’t usually have anything other than carry-on luggage; most people traveling easyJet do have luggage. They are saying that because is it not absolutely necessary to fly with luggage, they will charge it as an extra. If we compare this to a council, some services aren’t absolutely necessary to live, but are wanted by the great bulk of people. Some people can pay the extra, and it may work out cheaper for them, but some people will be worse off as they are effectively having to purchase the service.
I suppose my real objection is that I see the low cost model not as making efficiencies but as a means of reducing levels of automatic service provision. It’ll come as no surprise to you that I don’t think that’s a good idea.
xD.