Council f**king tax

[tinkerbellax]

So my council tax has been put up yet again. This is a bill that as a single parent, cripples me.

My bins now get emptied every couple of weeks.
My library has been closed
Today in my local paper it has been announced that extra funding for SEN children has been cut!

Wibu if I fight crime myself and empty my own fucking bin?

The best thing you can do is write to your MP and when the general election finally comes don't vote for the Tories.

Ours has gone up too and we have just been consulted about 3 week bin collections. Not only would this be awful for us as a household of 5 but surely local bin collectors ( who will presumably be mainly earning minimum wage) will now be made redundant.

I am angry but have never voted for this government and they are the ones who keep cutting council budgets. So what can we really do? We are literally helpless.

wasn't weekly bin collection abolished in most councils during the last labour government?

Yes it was but surely they should empty the waste food bin weekly

We don't even have bins! We have to put our bin bags at the top of the street for collection. The single person discount should be 50% imo.

Do you claim your single persons discount?

Are you entitled to means tested Council Tax Reduction ?

Really pissed off with my council they cut right to the bone and still want to cut more services. We have been a deprived ex mining area with many low paid jobs. All them cuts and they have the cheek to put up the tax £6 a month more. I never see the councillor and he lives next door I have to email him and then nothing is done I resent paying but it's the law that why they get away with it

i agree tinker I was wondering how fruitcorner had made the leap to not voting conservative based on a labour government policy?

Yes I get single persons discount.
It's not a lot to some but I'm paying £135 a month and it's really crippling me.

Obviously it pays for important things and I completely understand that. But when they put it up every year but cut much needed services it really annoys me.

Our regular bin and recycling are emptied alternative weeks, but food waste is taken every week. I didn’t realise this straight away, check yours isn’t the same.

The best thing you can do is write to your MP and when the general election finally comes don't vote for the Tories.

Exactly, because at the end of the day you can shift the council tax rise (that will never come down anyway only in a pipe dream) and you will just pay a little more tax across the board.

If your this politically charged that you think voting in a labour government is going to ever reduce council tax or even reduce many of the cuts already made then I have a bridge to sell

Actually, I'm not sure why we have a separate tax at all. Would it not be fairer to just incorporate it all into one tax based on personal income.

To top it all off we have a parish council that we pay a few pound to a month and all they do with that cash is plant saplings and build a dog play ground

but surely local bin collectors who will presumably be mainly earning minimum wage
What makes you think bin men are on minimum wage?
The bin men in our area are on a starting salary of £18,900 + 30 days annual leave and bank holidays.

OP You can ask the council for a copy if the budget plan to see where your money is going.

@van that's a really good idea.

My house is a housing association home and I'm living on a shoe string. I can't afford it at all

Waste collection is mostly badly done, supposedly to be more green but actually it's just inefficient. And refuse collectors (aptly named as they do indeed refuse to do their job if your bin is a millimetre in the wrong place or someone's dropped a coffee cup in your recycling while you're at work) get paid a fair whack more than minimum wage.

vandrew4

I don't have a huge objection to fortnightly. I think it has increased recycling and if a family of five can cope then it was probably a good policy but 3 weekly is another thing entirely. If you can't make the come go on between austerity and council tax rises there is a problem. This OP has a closed library that is nothing to do with labour.

The majority of people don't need to have their bins collected weekly - you just need to manage your waste better, preferably by reducing it.

Aaargh!! * if you cant make the connection

We still have ours emptied weekly and I’m very thankful.

Also I agree that council tax is regressive - it should be based on income. Plus, fuck this 25% bullshit - why the fuck should I pay 50% more than someone who is in a couple?

I'm pleased for you Georgie, but it's a luxury rather than a necessity.

@Fruitcorner123

If you are trying to pin the blame on the evil tories I suggest you take a glance at any edition of the Private Eye over the past couple of decades to see the shit state of local councils, its not confined to Tory by any stretch.

People say we should have devolution and have no idea of the shit show that is local labour and tory councils, council tax rises are not just because of "muh evil tories"

I didn’t say it was. I just said I was thankful.

maybe I'm thinking too simplistically here but to me the fairest system would be everyone pays % of income like income tax, that gets put into a big central fund and that fund is distributed as necessary to the councils. basically exactly like the NHS, defence budget etc. etc.

notacooldad

The bin men in our area are on a starting salary of £18,900 + 30 days annual leave and bank holidays.

Lucky them! Below average salary and a few days above average holidays including bank holidays which the vast majority get anyway, just in case that wasn't enough they get to handle human waste for a living and get up as some unsociable hour for the privilege. Let's not feel sorry for them or think they deserve NOT to be made redundant because after all the politicians who voted in favour of austerity are only paid 6/7 times as much.

All I said was I feel sorry for the bin collectors who will be made redundant. Who would have thought that was controversial.