To think council tax rises are a joke

[lljr82]

Another huge inflation busting rise in council tax, but they've closed the library, not fixed loads of potholes, reduced rubbish collecting, social care is apparently poorly funded, the school has to beg for money at the start of each term, closed the fire station, closed a hospital nearby, reduced police numbers and won't even visit when my car was broken into even though there should be CCTV footage of it.

It just seems like a joke. Where is the money going?

Sandown Town Council does indeed have issues.

But the Island Council has skyrocketing costs linked to the demographic mix and the Unitary is too small to have resilient reserves.
Take that one up with your MP.

Stand for the Council.
Read up on the rules and get involved with meetings.

In Scotland the SNP froze council tax for 10 years starving the councils of cash, and then last year whacked up the top council tax bands by up to 22.5% and then the councils added a further 3% on top of that. Then another 3% this year.

I’d much rather have had a few percent rise every year rather than a painful whacking big increase in one year.

They seem to have persuaded their cult members that the freezes were a progressive policy while cutting services left right and centre.

I'm not sure what a parish council is!

Might have a google. I live in London not sure if they have a different setup.

Google hasn't enlightened me - are they the equivalent of the borough councils? So like Hertsmere maybe bit nearish to me outside of london.

Our labour party sends through stuff about getting involved and the times are often really not good - I work full time, husband works shifts and we have 2 primary age kids. I'm never really sure who is able to do this sort of thing TBH.

And anyway the idea that because I personally can't stand for the council at the moment means I have to accept anti-society and sometimes illegal behaviour from the council is bonkers. I pay them, they provide me and everyone else with services, they are accountable to us, that's basic surely.

Snibble
London does not have Parishes (apart from Queens Park)
It just has borough councils and the GLA

Elsewhere there are normally three teirs

• county
• district
• parish

or two tiers

• unitary
• parish

or one (in some cities)

• Unitary

Its a mish mash, but the Parish model works really well in rural areas.

Oh I see you literally said that anyone who doesn't get involved has no right to complain.

That's an interesting attitude.

many of the people worst affected by the cuts - children, elderly people, those with disabilities - cannot "get involved" so they have no right to compain. Awesome.

Mercury - we have a new school built by construction company building housing estate, new roads paid for by construction company building housing estate, new books for library, paid for by construction company building - you guessed it... new houses

In the case of children if they are under 18 they aren't even allowed in the librray to research how to get involved lol not lol

(Well they are sometimes, but not very much outside of school hours at all).

Ah I see talkin

I do get emails saying to get involved with the council but it feels impossible on top of everything else. Plus councillors are in the public eye and I'm not really sure that would be a good thing.

I think the idea that people are not allowed to complain if they aren't involved is a poor one.

Encourage people to attend meetings / do what they can - sure.
Tell them that if they don't want to / can't then they are not allowed to complain about anything the council does / does that affects them / their locality - I think that's a poor idea.

I'd be happy to pay more if they weren't still cutting services, but paying 💰 💰 💰 for less doesn't make sense!! 🤷🏻‍♀️

Snibble
Getting involved can be

• attending meetings
• filling in consultations
• send in questions about meeting agenda items
• read the agenda and see if you can send a friend to ask questions
• read the council rag before you bin it and ASK QUESTIONS

and most of all VOTE VOTE VOTE as turnout at local council elections can be as low as 20% if it rose to 70% the results might be rather different

PistFump
THe services they HAVE to provide are using up more and more and more of the money.
So they HAVE to cut everything that are not obliged to do.
Look at this picture
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-35842342

If more Women and Mothers stood as councillors then they would stop being Old White Men's clubs.

There are Parish Councils that have not had a contested election for decades.
If you want change, make it happen.

Abso-bloody-lutely.

I've stood as a candidate twice - once for Parish Council in the village where I ran a community cafe - I lost to a candidate who no one in the village knew but they had an address in the village whereas I live in the neighbouring town 2 miles away.

The second time was to be a Ward Cllr for the Unitary Council for the County - I lost by a handful of votes to the incumbent who has been a Cllr for over 20 years.

Four both, turnout was less than 20%.

Until those people who moan about the way things are done actually vote, then nothing will change - because at the moment, those people who vote are happy with the status quo.

I struggle with why you pay more for council tax elements based on a house value? The service should be the same for us all, yet based on a value of our homes, we pay more percentage wise, it doesn't make sense and seems to be based on faulty logic that we have more disposable income. We really don't. In our area Band A pay £118.31 for policing and Band H £354.92 a year, why? Do Band H get more policing? Council Tax is wrong on so many levels and the services we have used and do use, are practically non-existent now, so I struggle with the fact that the rises are supposedly to pay for social care, yet every single element of our council tax has risen and yet the number of properties and residents in the area have substantially increased - so where is the money from all the extra properties and residents gone - going?

Maybe the councils need to be more efficient. Take a look at the last time property valuation that council tax is being assessed on was last reviweed.

I struggle with the fact that the rises are supposedly to pay for social care, yet every single element of our council tax has risen and yet the number of properties and residents in the area have substantially increased - so where is the money from all the extra properties and residents gone - going?
Go to the council website and read the budget
read the accounts
INFORM YOURSELF

Did you vote at the last elections ?

Those who can afford more paying more is a basic principle of progressive taxation Tollgate.

remember the poll tax?

I struggle with why you pay more for council tax elements based on a house value? The service should be the same for us all, yet based on a value of our homes, we pay more percentage wise, it doesn't make sense and seems to be based on faulty logic that we have more disposable income. We really don't

I'm guessing you're too young to remember the Poll Tax riots? Everyone was liable for the same payment - with means tested deductions for those on low incomes.

That went well.

VAT is also a shocker.

I love that things like yachts and vintage wines are VAT free...

TSSDNCOP
THe national revaluation keeps being deferred by the Tories as they do not want top end rebanding to happen as it will hit their cronies

I love that things like yachts and vintage wines are VAT free...
Link please ?
As that is not what my VAT guide says.

When you say "cronies" do you mean "most of the people who live in london full stop"?

IWasACandidate is right. I too stood for the local Town Council and they voted in someone who could help with the repairs to the Town Hall, he was an architect with no experience of local governance or community activities, but they wanted to repair the town hall on the cheap, so they voted for their own gain, not to help others. Frustrating when you see how badly this renovation has been executed, but if you pay peanuts .... or no peanuts at all, ....

I get involved a great deal in the community and the waste I see each and every day is frustrating, as is the quality of many who represent us, at all levels. If you want change, please vote for it and too often the only ones who do vote are those that want things to stay the same and the only ones that stand, or those that really need to stay sat at the back - rant over!

Talk, it was 1991. Lots of non-Tory years in there too. Genuine question, I really need to look this up properly I admit, does a national valuation require a parliamentary vote? Can councils not undertake their own?

Interestingly just got a "newspaper" though the door with "Barnet News" written at the top and "produced by barnet conservatives" mentioned in a not very noticable way.

It's wild propoganda - like "Barnet conservatives protect our libraries whereas neighbouring labour councils have had theirs all burnt down" etc etc

I've just explained to my 8yo what "propaganda" means although I can't spell it

Apparently they are bulding a2 massive new leisure centres with our money which will then presumably be turned over to private companies to run at prices not affordable for many families, they are instead trying to compete with private gyms - building what are effectively private gyms with public money and then the private companies running them take the profit.

sigh.

Yes I always vote & have campaigned on high street & leafletted & etc. I don't think that people complaining should be berated for being lazy. How can anyone know that people complaining on the net are all useless?