What Could You Do With £68k?

Last updated on May 8th, 2023 at 11:35 am

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I was going to take a day off today, but events overtook me.

What could you do with £68,000?

You could employ 3 Police Recruits (or Student Constables, whatever they’re called today) for a year.

You could buy/lease a few nice shiny cars to compliment the fleet.

You could certainly fund a new Reward Specialist.

You could mount several street-level operations against Borough priorities and keep the public happy.

Or you could move a sign.

A Freedom of Information Request (not one of mine this time MPS) has revealed that it cost £68,000 to move the revolving sign outside New Scotland Yard in 2012.  Money well spent I say, seeing as how they’ll all be moving out by 2016 as Boris sells off a bit more of the family silver.

In it’s entirety, mainly cos it;s Monday and I could do with a laugh, here’s the request and the Met’s response.

Enjoy, I’m off to lie down in a darkened room;

I have heard that the MPS spent a considerable amount of money moving the revolving NSY sign outside New Scotland Yard. Could you please advise me:
1. Is this true?
2. When was the work done?
3. How much did the work cost?
4. What was the reason for the move?
5. How far was the sign moved?
6. How long had the sign been in place prior to its being moved?
7. How long is it before the MPS is scheduled to leave NSY, taking the sign with them?

RESULT OF SEARCHES

The searches located information relevant to your request.

DECISION

I have today decided to disclose the located information to you in full. Total costs of replacing and relocating the sign were £68,000. This figure included design and manufacture of a new sign, the mechanical and electrical infrastructure required to support the sign, installation, building work and associated professional fees including Town Planning process.

The works were part of resilience and security redevelopment works to NSY in preparation for the Olympics. The sign now provides electrical points for broadcasting organisations and is located to provide open interview space for news items.
The sign was moved in June 2012. The new site is approximately 15m from the original site of the sign where it had been for over 30 years.

The move of staff and officers from New Scotland Yard will be completed by Spring 2016.

Forgive me for being pedantic, but isn’t this Public (Council Tax Payers’) money? Could it not have been better spent? Yet one more example of inexplicable priorities.

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1 thought on “What Could You Do With £68k?”

  1. The message is all.

    Priority? The new position 15m away “provides electrical points for broadcasting organisations and is located to provide open interview space for news items”

    We suppress whistleblowers with a glee only audible in the privacy of the Commissioner’s office, yet it resonates loudly enough to make even the NHS jealous and our employees silent, cynical, despondent and truly subservient.

    To ensure social media messages from disgruntled staff are drowned out by the equivalent of 3 officially-sanctioned PR slaughter cannon, just moving the existing sign wouldn’t have sufficed.

    The price had to include the “design and manufacture of a NEW sign” plus “associated professional fees including Town Planning process” – fees required to plan a move 15m along the pavement.

    Woe betide our employees if they deviate 15mm from our authorised views via social media. The cost to each will be much higher still.

    The subservient state. Our message is all.

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