Council Tax 13/14

In my area:

Council amount - £1,397.05. Up 2.5%; how, when all we hear aout is public sector pay freezes and labour cuts?
Police amount - £149.33 - up 3.5%. Again - how?
Fire amount - £57.64 - up 9.5%. Nine and a half percent???? WTAF???

Total chargeable - £1,604.02. Jesus truly wept.

 

Councils are being squeezed through funding cuts from central government. They may have cut staff but that is a drop in the ocean compared to the cuts they are facing.

 

£4.39 a day. Is it worth going without cops, fire and rescue service and council for that?

 

i pay full council tax then on top another £250 a year as my road is unadopted by the local council. i and the other homeowners therefore have to pay a private company to "manage" the cutting of the grass verges etc..... totally ridiculous

 

Mine's £1356.55 next year. Our council has a 32 million pound shortfall - difficult times for most northern councils .

 

They need to operate more like private companies. The days of bottomless pits of public money being wasted are, thankfully, well and truly over and somecouncils are finding it very difficult to adjust.

 

I'm lucky mine is included in my rent.... But then I do pay £1000 a month for that!

 

It's not gated? Anyway, I'm there to keep it real.

 

You mean operate like private businesses by cutting everything that makes a loss. Ok, no old peoples care services, no swimming pools, no libraries, no social services, no child protection teams and on and on. Waste like that?

Public services aren't businesses, and the cuts can not be absorbed by reducing printing.

 

I'd be interested in seeing examples of this bottomless pit of money Mario.

 

Depends what you mean by operating like a private company though. Cutting wastage - clearly good. Subcontracting public servive work to private, profit-driven companies, many of whom will subcontract again themselves - not good.

 

Mine has only gone up by 0.5% overall.
The council part is unchanged, the increase is for police and fire service, bith about 3%.

 

Why don't you all just cut 'em yourselves?

You lads need to operate more like a private company...

 

How much is your council chief exec on ?

£130/140k a year ?

It'd help if they'd wallop 30 or 40 grand off their salaries, and reduce the salaries of their minions in their little empires rather than dinner ladies and bin men.

 

Piffle. Private companies the size of councils waste just as much if not more money!

 

Waste EXACTLY like that!!

Cost of everything and the value of nowt.

In the next post, outrage at a war veteran selling his medals to pay for care

 

Far from good.

 

Private businesses can cut back on their losses, it is measurable on a financial basis. This is the difference between income generated by the businesses and its costs.

Public services do not have that measurable financial indicator, they only have costs they do not have profit or losses (well not since Maggie's internal market debacle)

The only way that a public service can be measured is on the quality of service it gives compared to the cost incurred and that is a touchy feely subjective matter which accountants can't measure.

 

I'm having to sell my 1972 Esso FA cup centenary coins... does that count ? Oh forgot I'm OUTRAGED !!!! said in a Daily Express manner !