A consultant working to help Nottingham City Council reach financial stability has hit out at the "really difficult" way to pay fines for driving on the tram tracks after receiving one himself. The consultant was hired recently to support the council in its transformation and says the authority will be streamlining its customer service operations.
Richard Grice is currently paid more than £1,000 per day to work as the interim director of the transformation programme at the council. An additional £134,000 was approved for his employment over 132 days between April and September.
The programme will span four years and seeks to make the council's operations more cost effective and efficient while also improving the 'negative' culture which was said to have lingered over some departments. One of the ways in which the transformation and improvement team is seeking to streamline the council's operations is through more simplistic and coherent customer service operations and IT systems.
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This includes ways in which people can contact the council and conduct actions such as paying fines. It will in turn, Mr Grice says, make the council more cost efficient. During a scrutiny committee meeting at Loxley House on April 6, Mr Grice raised the case for improving some of these systems, stating he had found it "really difficult" to pay a fine through the council's portal.
He had been slapped with a fine while driving in the city. Motorists can be fined up to £60 for driving through a designated tram or bus gate in Nottingham; He said: "I've been working here for two months now and within two weeks I had a driving offence and like most people for driving on the tram line.
"We shouldn't be making that difficult for people," he added. Councillors were told the four-year long process will be "challenging".
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The council has however avoided costly commissioners being sent in to take over operations, with the Government seemingly approving of its own actions to improve. Work does not cease here, however, with progress still being monitored and consultations taking place over cost-saving actions such as closing children's centres and libraries.
The plan to improve working culture and operations will also continue for four years, with many changes taking time to put in place.
