Council Tax Rise

[PCM]

22 hours ago, PCM said:

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

+ another £45 I think, to have a Green garden waste bin.

[Parts-King]

£195 pm here in West Cheshire and green waste is £50 for the season (about 9 months I think) 

[Roy124]

@Rhymes with Paris my last job used to have a 'HO' of no more than 3 and a part time accts woman.  We had an annual meeting.

There was a major reorganisation.   The new organisation now lacked the previous over arching top neddy, but the next layer went from 3+1 to 3 separate groups, each 3+1, 4 quarterly meetings (it might have been every 6 weeks) and an annual meeting every 6 months.

The watch word for the meetings was 'don't bring me problems,  bring me solutions'.

Our part of the organisation did as before and solved our problems.   The other part would waste oxygen.

Which side did the new sub-boss prefer?

[Haliotis]

A few days ago we got a flyer through the door - from our local MP (at least we know his name now!), prompting us to vote for his party at the coming local elections, against the one which normally gets voted into power.

Quite funny really - how the ones in power are complete ogres, and his party are all geared up to save us from bankruptcy.

Strangely, his party have power in the county council, and their leader is one of those criticised for high salaries.  This leader also wants the county council to be autonomous, and shut down the local district councils.  This would, of course, “greatly increase his responsibilities”, and a significant further salary increase would be argued for.

[Puglet]

Ours is £240 a month and then £70 for green waste bin for year. In recent years we gone to fortnightly black bin waste, but the recycling bin is still weekly, and the green waste bin was subsidised, but that gone up a lot in last few years. To be fair, the black bin changes are ok cos of the recycling bin is still weekly and we can recycle a lot all in one bin which is handy. 

Happy to report our council has wasted loads of money over the years on under-budgeting large projects or legal challenges to various schemes, one of my favourites was putting traffic lights / thru road on a roundabout, which when switched on brought the town centre to a complete standstill. After a few weeks the traffic lights were switched off and it eventually got put back to being a 'normal' roundabout.

 

[Roy124]

@Puglet in contrast, after the letter from our bin police, if in doubt, landfill.

Previously we were all guilty of wish-recycling but sorting at the depot is now TFD.

All our soft plastics,  shredded paper, pizza boxes, fish and chip wrappers,and wet cardboard go to landfill.  Dry cardboard to landfill when the paper bin is full. 

And shredded paper in a plastic bag, presumably so they don't have to sweep out the lorry.

[Bper]

19 hours ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

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.

 

Hi Paul, your story reminded me after growing up with my parents being members of a Conservative club,better known as (working mens clubs). The committee used to vote on the stewards wages amongst other things,but what i remember more is the club ran a loan club that you paid in weekly and at Christmas time they would pay out with a bit of interest on top which helped members pay towards their Christmas. You could also take a loan out during the year depending on how much you paid in each week.

Apart from that the drink was subsidised and was as cheap as chips used to be.

[Rhymes with Paris]

2 hours ago, Bper said:

what i remember more is the club ran a loan club that you paid in weekly and at Christmas time they would pay out with a bit of interest on top which helped members pay towards their Christmas.

Aye, back in the day,a lot of social clubs did perform a social function.

The sick and dividing for one, I thought at first it was a sensible form of quarantine,to divide the sick from the well,to prevent the spread of disease.

But no ,it was a scheme you paid a few shillings into every week, and if you were off sick got a few quid back to tide you over the hardship of buying beer while on sickness benefits, quite how ill you had to be to not go to the club, and guzzle beer was not made clear.

Things change however, and the last time I went in there,a local idiot was in there ranting and threatening people, and chucking glasses at the mirror back bar.

Anyhoo, back to topic council tax rises, apart from inflation, there is huge waste,over staffing and gold plated pensions to consider, so not too surprising really.

I know that they have a chap here who goes out to assess whether assisted bin service is needed, then the bin men leave the bins anywhere except where would possibly help someone who can't move them, strange logic.

Also an entire anti social behaviour "team"who are a waste of money, space, and a pension,a bit like the dog warden who cares nothing for dogs, just drawing salary.

Nice work if you can get it,as they say.

All these non jobs will eventually disappear if councils continue to go bust, and follow the model of an entire country going bust even when within the EU, which of course we are not.

Maybe the free ride and gravy train is coming to an end, but I doubt it.

[Bper]

8 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

Aye, back in the day,a lot of social clubs did perform a social function.

The sick and dividing for one, I thought at first it was a sensible form of quarantine,to divide the sick from the well,to prevent the spread of disease.

But no ,it was a scheme you paid a few shillings into every week, and if you were off sick got a few quid back to tide you over the hardship of buying beer while on sickness benefits, quite how ill you had to be to not go to the club, and guzzle beer was not made clear.

Things change however, and the last time I went in there,a local idiot was in there ranting and threatening people, and chucking glasses at the mirror back bar.

Anyhoo, back to topic council tax rises, apart from inflation, there is huge waste,over staffing and gold plated pensions to consider, so not too surprising really.

I know that they have a chap here who goes out to assess whether assisted bin service is needed, then the bin men leave the bins anywhere except where would possibly help someone who can't move them, strange logic.

Also an entire anti social behaviour "team"who are a waste of money, space, and a pension,a bit like the dog warden who cares nothing for dogs, just drawing salary.

Nice work if you can get it,as they say.

All these non jobs will eventually disappear if councils continue to go bust, and follow the model of an entire country going bust even when within the EU, which of course we are not.

Maybe the free ride and gravy train is coming to an end, but I doubt it.

 

 

 

Well collectively we all have a issue with both the amount of council tax levied on us and the lack of services being provided.The other main complaint is that we do not have any say in how this money is spent.

Now the argument put forward regarding the pension and remuneration package of these councillors is often answered that it requires a particular level of expertise to run these councils hence this must reflect in the pay etc. Well unless I have been living on a different planet for the last few decades this expertise has landed us in the mess we find ourselves in now.

I have mentioned before in posts regarding MPs,IMO both cases should be that MPs and councils should produce a law abiding manifesto when they are in the election phase and once elected if they fail to achieve these pledges without good reason they should be fired and replaced. If they do achieve them then the pay and remuneration package should reflect this.

[Roy124]

@Rhymes with Paris know that they have a chap here who goes out to assess whether assisted bin service is needed, then the bin men leave the bins anywhere except where would possibly help someone who can't move them, strange logic.

Probably the same outfit that assessed me.  Assumed that as I needed assistance I would be home bound and waiting for her.   She turned up out of the blue - naturally we were out.

The Demographic Republic of Grimsby announced they would be visiting to assess my mother in laws finances regards benefits. She would be there at 12.30.

MiL was petrified.   We visited ensure fair play.   At 1 pm I took her out to lunch (The Ocean).  Curiously we were not in when the woman turned up.  They complained.  I tore a strip off them and they said she had had to go for lunch and had got there at 2pm.

Once her boss got used to having an extra hole the whole thing got dropped.   Now she does not even pay council tax.

 

[Haliotis]

Birmingham City Council have declared themselves bankrupt due, no doubt, to mismanagement of the finances.  Some form of package must have been agreed, but the residents will gat a tax increase of 21% over 2 years. I don’t think any of the senior officials have been punished, but there has to be savings made and I would bet some redundancies will happen to minor players who only carried out orders from above.

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

8 UK councils have declared effective bankruptcy since 2018 - 4 in the past 17 months (Birmingham Woking, Nottingham and Thurrock). It is expected almost 1 in 10 will follow suit in the next year.

The council tax increase in Birmingham for 2024/25 is 9.3%. 

The Chief Executive of Birmingham CC resigned in March despite claiming in January she wouldn't resign. No additional payments were made to her.

[Paul john]

2 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

8 UK councils have declared effective bankruptcy since 2018 - 4 in the past 17 months (Birmingham Woking, Nottingham and Thurrock). It is expected almost 1 in 10 will follow suit in the next year.

The council tax increase in Birmingham for 2024/25 is 9.3%. 

The Chief Executive of Birmingham CC resigned in March despite claiming in January she wouldn't resign. No additional payments were made to her.

Yes Turrock :(((

[Benzowner]

Still not had my council tax bill for this year but was paying £192 per month last year so gues we'll be over the £200 😒

[Hybrid21]

My council tax is well over £400 Geoff, so think yourself lucky 😄

[Roy124]

On 4/11/2024 at 9:00 AM, Parts-King said:

£195 pm here in West Cheshire and green waste is £50 for the season (about 9 months I think) 

Used to be Cheshire when I were a lad.   I was born in west Cheshire, aka the Wirral,  and a poshish bit between Prenton, Storton and Bebington,  Higher and not Lower.   Definitely not B'head even though it were 😀

[Benzowner]

On 4/12/2024 at 1:12 PM, Benzowner said:

Still not had my council tax bill for this year but was paying £192 per month last year so gues we'll be over the £200 😒

Update, bill arrived today and only a 5% increase well pleased was expecting a lot more.

[Parts-King]

On 4/13/2024 at 5:19 PM, Roy124 said:

Used to be Cheshire when I were a lad.   I was born in west Cheshire, aka the Wirral,  and a poshish bit between Prenton, Storton and Bebington,  Higher and not Lower.   Definitely not B'head even though it were 😀

Ah you mean the North End, Birkenhead 😁😁

I'm nowhere near, I'm in deepest Sheshire, Chester end don't you know 😎😎