Sometimes you do have to ask what planet some council officials are living on, but there are few recommendations so detached from any common sense or public awareness than a plan to introduce more parking charges across East Lothian, but to grant council workers an exemption.
A rule for one, a rule for all doesn’t seem that difficult a concept to grasp, so it is incredible that officers should even consider it being acceptable to justify a free pass for themselves while imposing charges on everyone else.
By the argument that council workers shouldn’t be adversely impacted, we would all be able to avoid parking charges just by saying they represented an unacceptable reduction of our incomes, and I seem to recall Labour being keen on workplace parking fees.
Surely to goodness the chief executive should have stepped in to block such blatant hypocrisy, and if it was so unpalatable for council staff to bear the cost, then the new charges would never have been considered in the first place.
But then, what else should we expect from a Labour-led administration pandering to the demands of public sector unions? After all, this is a party whose chancellor has just hit private sector pensions with a tax raid on salary sacrifice schemes, while leaving far more generous public sector pensions untouched.
Prioritising the rights of council workers ahead of everyone else is what they do, as if councils primary function is to provide as many jobs as possible, not efficient services as effectively.
