Council Non-jobs, Eric Pickles gets tough

The government's latest issue with Local Authorities is non-jobs. These, of course, are local government jobs that most people add limited value to, well, anything. The best examples of these are from our old friends at Manchester City Council, the same people who seem to enjoy cutting their own services because they get to blame the government about it, with the following:

Nuclear Free Local Authorities Secretariat Policy and Research Officer - salary up to £37,543, job description: Identifying nuclear hazards and pressing for existing binding international agreements on nuclear weapons;

and

New Media Manager - salary up to £38,000, job description: Facebook and Twitter Tsar, providing presence on social networking sites and other web tasks.

These roles are clearly bonkers, but sometimes Local Government is its own worst enemy. Jobs are advertised with descriptions in Council-speak so that they are incomprehensible to human beings. There is also the depressing tendency to try and reflect every aspect of a job in the job title, which leads to a title that is several sentences of gibberish long.

Eric Pickles does have a point though. Earlier this week I was told that Basildon Borough Council had been criticised because we do not employ a Tourism Officer. Now, I love this area, and I would be first to sing its numerous virtues to an outsider, but a Tourism Officer? I don't think so. Apparently though we are the only Council in Essex without one.

Think on that for a moment.