The cost of Ken

Kingston Councillors received through the post this morning the full Budget Book for 2008-9. It revealed some fascinating statistics.

The most interesting and immediately relevant are these:

in 2000-01 (Ken’s first Mayoral Year) the GLA precept on Kingston – the ‘cost of Ken’ – was £7.34million.

in 2008-09, after 8 years of Ken’s administration, it has risen to £18.97million. And this is the smallest London Borough which probably gets least out of centrally funded services. Where has all the money gone? Ken’s crony and ‘adviser, Lee Jasper (pictured with Ken) could probably tell some fascinating tales, and may shortly have to, it seems.

But isn’t it time to put a full stop to such prodigious waste?

We don’t have to tell you how to do that. We believe you already know and, to coin a phrase, ‘you can get it if you really want it’.