Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[CLKD]

Apparently Councils are getting less from the Government of the day ……. so are cutting back 'services'.  However, DH read this morning that UK Councils have in hand, over £280B ……… invested etc..  So how come Councils are able to 'cut back' on local Services  ……… this isn't moral 

[Limpy]

Our council have reduced the number of bin lorries and bin men. They've not reduced the amount of work the blokes have to do.  Does't seem fair on the workers.

[Ju Ju]

Seems to be a generalised problem. Cutting down on staff, but still expecting and demanding the same amount of work to be done. Results in a lot of stress and ill health in remaining staff.

[Hattie]

Our cutbacks here include gritting and pothole repairs.
The gritting policy is based on number of residents - leaving some small villages reached by steep inclines in a dangerous position.Gradients on a map weren't even considered.
Our parish council now has a snow warden plus volunteers and it's own small gritting machine towed by a vehicle - not the same as the gritting lorry though which was out at night gritting before it snowed often.
One chap on our local news got so fed up he repaired the pothole outside his house and was featured in the local paper - he was called by the council and offered to go and train properly with them - so that is going to be leading to everyone filling their own potholes eventually.

[honeybun]

I agree it's totally ridiculous. It if they were to stop wasting money on pointless things like "twinning" and then sending councillors abroad that would help. Then there are the pointless studies on how to best spend money that go on for months and cost a fortune.

Meanwhile it took me a month to get them to fix streetlighting. People were having to use torches.

Ooooo don't get me started 



Honeyb
X

[Ju Ju]

Street lights? Ooh what are they? None our village. But that's what you buy into if you live here and we wouldn't change it. You get a clear view of the night sky. You just invest in good torches or not if you're like my son. He walks around in the pitch dark with no torch as he says your eyes adjust and it is amazing what you can see. I'll take his word for it!

[honeybun]

We don't have many Ju Ju as we are beside a country park on one side and hills at the back. However there is a very steep path that leads from the end of our road down to the main road. The street lamp at the end lights it just enough for the kids to see when they go that way. Quite a lot of children go that way to catch the school bus and they were struggling in the dark.

Someone was going to have an accident so I complained over and over until they fixed it to shut me up 


Honeyb
X

[CLKD]

My point being, is that the money is THERE - but in stocks, shares, investments, land      ............ it is OUR money ........ should NOT be invested unless there is nothing left to pay it out on!!!!!

How can any Council justify cutting back when they have our money invested to the tune of £billions!

[Hattie]

You can only sell assets once - who makes that decision ?

[CLKD]

Well it's Public Money so the public should be involved?  Locally there are pockets of Council owned land: some is put out to farmers who no longer farm; others are standing idle and a couple of large areas are due to built upon - new school required apparently.

[Limpy]

Our council is going to get less council tax unless they pull their finger out and get our bin emptied.

[CLKD]

Good for you!  Do they have an excuse?  Point out that the Council should be putting their Annual Accounts on their web-site and if not, you would like to see a copy 

[tiger74]

the public should be involved? 

Surely we are involved, we live in a democracy.  If you don't like what your local council (or the government) are doing, vote for someone else next time.  If you think they're all as bad as each other, stand for election yourself. 

[Limpy]

the public should be involved? 

If you think they're all as bad as each other, stand for election yourself.

I know somebody who thought that and did stand for election. He found that when he arrived at meetings, armed with an agenda prepared to discuss something there would be a group of councillors already there. When it came to a particular topic they said we've already discussed that no need to say any more. OK, that was in New Zealand but it is pretty similar to the UK.

Also, don't forget "brown envelopes" (bribes) - democracy doesn't help there

[Limpy]

Our council is going to get less council tax unless they pull their finger out and get our bin emptied.

UPDATE

They've emptied the bin - Yaaayyyyyyy   

They will get All of their council tax