Status Quo fans need not apply
At a time when public bodies are being asked to count the coppers and find ways of cutting costs, one council has spent £10,000 designing a site which consists of three pages plus a PDF download.
Brighton and Hove Council, which is trying to make £45 million in cuts, is recruiting four strategic directors. To support the recruitment process for these four jobs it commissioned a recruitment agency to create a dedicated website at a reported cost of £10,000. The front page of the site named "SayNoToStatusQuo.co.uk" proclaims "Status Quo fans need not apply" and consists of just three pages in total along with a link to download the application form in PDF format. Well that sounds like public money well spent.
Not surprisingly, the council came in for a lot of criticism, not least from fans of Status Quo, and Chief Executive John Barradell felt it necessary to set out an apology in which he said "What we mean by this play on words is that we want people who will come to the council with brilliant and original ideas about how to make residents' lives better. We don't want people who will accept things the way they are."
Status Quo band members, who are due to play Brighton in December have said they plan to hang a banner over the entrance to the Brighton Centre which will read "Councillors for Brighton and Hove need not attend".
28th June 2010