Council Tax Rise

[Bper]

We have just received our new council tax bill in and are really fed up with this continue rise ever year for bugxxx all services. Our new monthly payment is £180. My wife asked what others are now paying a month so i thought I would ask you guys to get some idea.

[2toyos]

4 minutes ago, Bper said:

We have just received our new council tax bill in and are really fed up with this continue rise ever year for bugxxx all services. Our new monthly payment is £180. My wife asked what others are now paying a month so i thought I would ask you guys to get some idea.

£282 for a small run down town in Northamptonshire 

[Bper]

5 minutes ago, 2toyos said:

£282 for a small run down town in Northamptonshire 

Hi Matthew. And I thought ours was bad WTF.🤬

[2toyos]

9 minutes ago, Bper said:

Hi Matthew. And I thought ours was bad WTF.🤬

We get nothing for it either, you'd think for that money, they would be proactive, no, have to complain about the state of the parks, walkways, etc etc, I've had to clean a park area for my boys to use as the council don't do a damn thing, I actually got refused to use extra the bin bags, that are ment for families because they keep reducing the black bin sizes, oh well, we can't do a damn thing about it

[dannyboy413]

The nearest thing to the UK 'Council Tax' we have where I am is called 'Housing Charge'. I pay to get water from my well into the house, the household waste water runs through a pipe to a ditch on the edge of my land, sewage goes into a septic tank that I pay to have emptied, (although the Council will be along 'sometime' and probably state that the tank is not up to standard and I will have to pay up to €10k to put it right). I pay a private company to empty my bins, once I have wheeled them over half a mile to the collection point every two weeks. Having said that, the council workmen were up on the lane throwing some tar and chippings into the potholes last week. Forgot to mention - 'Housing Charge' is €8.58, (about £7.35p), per month. Taking all things into account - I ain't complaining. 😊

[Cyker]

I think we're on around £210?

I wouldn't mind so much but they keep raising the taxes and reducing services; We used to have collections every week, now it's every fortnight with general waste and recycling on alternate weeks, and garden waste is now a paid service, which the cost doubling since last time.

I've also heard rumors that the recycling centre will be closed down and moved, and at the new site it will no longer be free but instead incur a per-vehicle charge.

[Roy124]

@Cyker agree about getting less for more.  You are lucky with your waste.  They have just switched to monthly collections for recycling (plastic, tins and glass) and cardboard and general waste each fortnight.

They also got very picky with what is recyclable, ie clean plastic trays and no shredded paper, take-away packaging etc.

Now my personal routine is to fill the cardboard waste bin in week one and use the landfill bin in weeks 2, 3 and 4.  For plastics, if it is a soft food tray that too goes into the landfill bin which is emptied fortnightly.  My recycle bin I shall probably put out every 8 weeks as I can't be bottomed to drag a near empty bin to the street and back.

They really are bottoms.

[Bper]

Interesting thing about separating waste just before we left London we used to see the dustbin men emptying both the general and recycling waste straight into the back of the same dustcart.

So look little people here is 2 or 3 bins and make sure you do our job for us by separating the waste. However do not make a mistake by putting the wrong bit in the wrong bin or we won't take it. Now we've got you doing it, lets put your council tax up, because you might complain but you won't do anything about it.Win Win, now how much can we get from them next year.

[PCM]

14 hours ago, Bper said:

We have just received our new council tax bill in and are really fed up with this continue rise ever year for bugxxx all services. Our new monthly payment is £180. My wife asked what others are now paying a month so i thought I would ask you guys to get some idea.

£440(!) a month for me... paying over 10 months. 

[Bper]

2 minutes ago, PCM said:

£440(!) a month for me... paying over 10 months. 

Hi Piers, do you live in a mansion. that is ridiculous, is that the average in Hertfordshire.

[PCM]

We live in a 'nice' part of Hertfordshire.

But yes, it's a huge amount - to get the bins emptied every other week! 

[Roy124]

A few years ago a small language difficulty crept into the instructions on the Green bin.

Two words that rhyme with bottom were permitted in the green bin. This probably accounted for shards of glass being found in Council manufactured grass based compost.

We produce better compost at home and save £40 pa for the green bin.

[ToyotaFanDriver]

Moved into or current house circa 6 years ago - £174 when we moved in £225 today. No increase in services, infact add on charges for garden waste etc are now part of something you used to get for free!

The bigger point though will be that central government has reduced budget allocation for local councils and thats why they are scamming residents. Whilst partly true, many in the council are on £150k+ and spend time on massive vanity projects such as bike lanes and rainbow zebra crossings. Why do I mention bike lanes? apparently air pollution is an issue and so to 'fix' this reducing a 2/3 lane wide road to a single lane with tail back traffic longer than usual is better than busy but flowing traffic.

I sometimes wish we went down the US route of just cut the taxes right down to the bones and privitise everything and then people can pay for what they use and need.

[RUToyota]

£253 p.m. here in sleepy Rutland + £60 p.a. to empty the green garden waste bin.

As ever, pay more, get less...pretty much sums up the UK.

[Bper]

17 hours ago, dannyboy413 said:

The nearest thing to the UK 'Council Tax' we have where I am is called 'Housing Charge'. I pay to get water from my well into the house, the household waste water runs through a pipe to a ditch on the edge of my land, sewage goes into a septic tank that I pay to have emptied, (although the Council will be along 'sometime' and probably state that the tank is not up to standard and I will have to pay up to €10k to put it right). I pay a private company to empty my bins, once I have wheeled them over half a mile to the collection point every two weeks. Having said that, the council workmen were up on the lane throwing some tar and chippings into the potholes last week. Forgot to mention - 'Housing Charge' is €8.58, (about £7.35p), per month. Taking all things into account - I ain't complaining. 😊

Hi David, what charge do you pay a year for your private bin collection.? 

[dannyboy413]

There is a standing monthly charge, but I forget just what it is. The blue recycling bin is free and I fill this up for every collection, (damned cat food tins - don't ask!). The black household rubbish bin is a pay by weight cost. I usually get away with just having it emptied every fourth week. The monthly bill is usually somewhere between €23 and €28 per month, depending on the weight in the black bin.

[Roy124]

@dannyboy413 with half a mile to the collection point private landfill might be tempting 😁

Can you also burn black bin stuff to reduce weight?

[dannyboy413]

Never in a million years would I consider that - it's illegal!  🤫

[Bper]

2 hours ago, dannyboy413 said:

Never in a million years would I consider that - it's illegal!  🤫

So is poitín in Northern Ireland 

[Roy124]

Actually,  thinking back, our first home was 2 years old and I set about planting a number of fruit trees.   One foot down I hit compacted soil that I used a pick the break through.  Immediately under that was rich golden sand.  I needed plenty of humus etc to give a good basis for the trees.

Rather than the typical small hole I dug out pits about 3 feet deep and 4 feet wide.  I put everything into the pits including plastic bottles, tin cans,  and every other rubbish together with barely rotted farmyard manure.

We had wonderful fruit the following seasons.

[Bper]

38 minutes ago, Roy124 said:

Actually,  thinking back, our first home was 2 years old and I set about planting a number of fruit trees.   One foot down I hit compacted soil that I used a pick the break through.  Immediately under that was rich golden sand.  I needed plenty of humus etc to give a good basis for the trees.

Rather than the typical small hole I dug out pits about 3 feet deep and 4 feet wide.  I put everything into the pits including plastic bottles, tin cans,  and every other rubbish together with barely rotted farmyard manure.

We had wonderful fruit the following seasons.

Was any of it canned fruit.

[Haliotis]

Today there was a brief discussion on TalkTV about council tax, about council bosses drawing six figure salaries, and some councils without professional experience venturing into property investment, and the taxpayer picking up the cost when things go wrong.

It is clear that (a) senior staff of councils need to have their salaries reined in to be more reasonable, and (b) the councils need to have a central, responsibly run monitoring panel to keep them in check.

Central government use the get-out clause of, “Well you can always vote them out at the next local elections.”  Rubbish, of course - we are only allowed to vote for policy decisions.  Nowhere is there any provision for residents to debate and challenge salaries and/or spending costs.

[Roy124]

Yes, but actually Boots concentrated grapes. 

Remember the home wine kits - bottles, corks, foil caps, jars, airlocks etc - now I prefer a nice Sauvignon from New Zealand

[Roy124]

@Haliotis of course the six figure salaries are for non-elected ....

[Rhymes with Paris]

Reminds me of committees which are well known for meeting on a regular basis to decide that nothing can be done about anything.

I once sat on a non important committee re social club, the vote was whether to increase the bar steward's salary.

I had the audacity to ask what the bar steward's current salary was, and how much it was to be increased by.

Apparently it was a secret, so I abstained from voting,to much disapproval.

He was a right ignorant bar steward anyway, and kept the beer badly while arguing it was fine, so did not deserve to be paid anything really, so a moot point for me.

Committees eh,no thanks when the going is good, and blamed when it goes wrong on others votes.

On the other hand, I would have voted for a vineyard or still in the back.