To think we can't expect the council to be responsible for everything?!

[AMAcarer]

In the run-up to Bonfire night, I noticed a lot of complaints on social media about the decision of my local council NOT to hold a fireworks display, to save costs. People complained that it was a disgrace, as with the cost of living crisis children need something to look forward to, and that the council was "forcing" people to spend money to travel to other areas for displays.

This was followed up by many comments blaming the council for the rise in foodbank use, for the rise in anti-social behavior, for the rise in fuel poverty, poverty in general and how the council spending money on the annual Christmas market rather than the fireworks display was a slap in the face to parents on a low-income as their children would "have their noses rubbed in it" by their friends who had parents on a higher income and could afford to pay for some of the rides etc at the Christmas market. Yet they wanted the council to literally blow up money for a "free event" on Bonfire night which would also have had paid for rides and would be or 1 night only, whereas the Christmas event is a month-long and has many free activities and events

I have many gripes with our local council, but am I wrong to think it's utterly ridiculous to think they should be held responsible for absolutely everything, and for people to expect them to provide so many things for free? I'ts just not possible is it? They have opened up a fuel poverty scheme with ££££ of pounds put aside to help people yet some of the same people claiming from this scheme still want the money spent on bloody fireworks?! The same people who are complaining they dont get enough help to feed their kids over the holidays still want money blown up in smoke for entertainment? There has been major anti-social issues recently and of course, it's the councils fault for "not providing" for children and teenagers. My area is absolutely chock full of fantastic, cheap or even free things for children and young families to do, and for teenagers too! Many of it council provided already.

I have no children, and I have lived in EXTREME poverty in the past, I'm no stranger to food or fuel poverty, being on benefits, being on a low income, and feeling utterly helpless...but even at my lowest I still didn't expect the council to sort out every single aspect of my life. Has some of society become so expectant on others that we don't want to take any personal responsibility at all?!

Sorry for the rambling!

I'm not a stupid person! I can't list the number of things our council has cocked up that has cost millions of pounds and there is no one who carries the can.
But one simple thing happened to me. I wanted a bolt for the bin lid. They costs pennies. Could I get them to give me a bolt? No. I offered to go pick one up. No. They said they'd send me one. Never happened. I rang several times. Bolt never arrived. A woman came round carrying out a survey as to how happy we were with the council. 🙄 She promised me 6 bolts (Why the fuck do I need 6?! I just wanted one.) She'd drop them round to me on her way home. Obviously, they never arrived. I was tying the bin lid on and eventually, and inevitable, the lid fell off in the bin lorry. Quelle surprise! So I rang up to say forget the bolt, send me a lid. Someone would be there in two weeks I was promised. Seven weeks later, no lid. I rang them up and they told me that they'd never told me two weeks but I'd been told 6 weeks. 😤 No, I was told 2. No you were told 6. How annoying is it to be told that after all their inefficiency, I'm the liar. 😏 I gave them the date, time and name of the lady I'd spoken to. (Not my first council rodeo!) They disappeared off the phone and then came back and apologised. But, they said, they'd told me wrongly about the 2 weeks but I would have to wait for 6 weeks. I pointed out that I'd already been waiting 7 weeks!
Anyway, they eventually gave me a whole new bin. But if they'd just given me a bolt when I'd asked, they'd never have incurred the cost of the whole new bin.
And just about everyone I know has a story about our useless council.

Fair enough, here it has made no difference. It has reduced the number of lanes available to cars, there have never been that many cyclists anyway. It’s near to a huge retail park (that has no bus service 🙄), anyone going there drives as there isn’t any other option, especially if going with kids and/or doing shopping.

@MarshaMelrose Exactly my local council is an utter joke and I hold them with utter contempt, it's not about lack of investment it's pure waste on vanity projects incompetence and lack of accountability to its residence. They don't listen of care just fill their snouts , most local councilors employ their immediate family.

Probably the crazy amount of rent the council charge for the unit

@MarshaMelrose

If they are so cheap why didn't you just buy one and save all the hassle? Just curious. I feel like these small things probably add up to potentially large expenses for the council.

Although, it is no excuse for their poor customer service, that is bloody dire.

There are other ways to fund these events though, our near big town is a seaside town and has a BID, made up of local businesses. They and advertising pay for free fireworks , Christmas light switch on, parades etc because without them a seaside town is dead over the winter and businesses fail. The events bring a lot of footfall. Council also seem to be successful in raising money through the arts council etc for winter events that keep the town alive. We had last year art installations around light, that were excellent and again brought crowds of people in mid winter to the coast.
Councils need to be creative

Most of council tax goes to pay for every increasing council pensions and social care. It's unsustainable.

@Georgeskitchen that proves my point about people just blaming the council for things that aren’t anything to do with them. Rents are set by the landlords i.e. the owners of the buildings. In some cases that might be a council but that definitely wasn’t the case for the shop I’m talking about.

We do have things like this in the area for other events, my part of the area has a beautiful gala week in summer and Christmas light committee that deal with things, organizing sponsorship etc. We are also a seaside area.

Part of the issue is that people from what is considered less well off areas have a lot of resentment towards more well off areas, and complain there are certain events that they don't get however not many are willing to step up and volunteer to get things off the ground in those areas. My area is classed as "well off" due to there being more privately owned homes than not, but it isn't a well-off area by any means and there are plenty of working class, and benefit claimant families living here too. What there is however is a good sense of community spirit regardless of income or situation and people actively get involved to keep things going!

Has some of society become...

What do you think a society is?

And how do you expect one with a population this large to operate without formally delegating group functions to government structures to act on everyone's behalf? It would be chaos if left informal or to individuals.

Local government services are not free either.

I suspect that a lot of people who complain about free fireworks events being cancelled, or that their bins aren’t emptied often enough, or potholes aren’t filled quickly enough, are very likely to be the same people that will try their hardest to keep their parents’ homes, or even theirs, from being used to pay for their care in later years. And that’s fine, that’s their choice - but there isn’t an endless stream of money and councils have been squeezed to the bone over the duration of this government.

Those complaining about salaries - how else is the public sector supposed to attract and retain talent? It’s a pretty thankless job, not much glamour, and every chance your face ends up on the wrong side of a Daily Mail headline.

Also, as a rough estimate, most councils are probably operating at around £10-30m in deficit at any one time. Cut a few salaries here and there, maybe you’ll save a million. It won’t be enough and it risks losing the experienced leadership required to keep the public sector functioning - at least as much as is possible while the Tories slowly suffocate it.

Completely agree.

I get really jarred by people (mainly Facebook commenters) who will say 'they' need to ......insert unreasonable request.
They need to open more shops.
They need to get the hospital better
They need to do fireworks
They need to give more benefits Yada yada ..... WHO ARE THEY?!

Most council spending goes on education and social care not pensions. Devon spend 3.8% on pensions.

You can probably guess the sector I work in from my username. The cost of social care is soaring, and the number of people I know who will do what it takes to dodge funding care is astounding, then complain they can't get the care package they want. Inheritance is not more important than the here and now when it comes to requiring care.

Most people have no idea what powers the council have and no interest in finding out.

I think you have misunderstood what I mean.

I think councils/local governments are absolutely essential, but I think us as a society need to accept that they cannot be held accountable or responsible for absolutely everything, we have a level of personal responsibility to ourselves, our children etc.

There is a council tax leaflet that goes in with the council tax bills, around April. It's written by the councils in the local area.

It usually outlines where the funding comes from and the pressures on the budget. There might be a graph or chart.

Our local one is written in fairly basic language. It is not technical.

I imagine that hardly anyone reads it though.

It will be interesting to see what April 2023's council tax leaflets will say, given that councils are not even expecting to be told what their allocation is until Christmas or even after Christmas.
Plus nobody really has a clue how much inflation will be.

@Tukmgru totally agree with the eye-watering salaries

The NHS needs looking at a well, all these so called "diversity" managers on 6 figure salaries.
I have a friend who worked in an admin role for the NHS and she was gobsmacked at the money going down the drain every day. She quit for the private sector in the end because the amount of unnecessary waste justdid her head In

@wormshuffled

without sounding horrible "THEY" always seem to be the same groups of people who won't get involved to make their area a better place. Who shout and scream but won't ever actively get involved in local politics, or volunteering, and in some cases will never actually contribute to the council tax budget themselves.

@VivX yes we do have that, but it's usually just a pie chart and a couple of words, it doesn't offer enough explanation that I feel it could. Of course I guess plenty of people won't bother to look at it anyway.

I disagree that salaries should be cut, personally.

But the general budget cuts have been devastating, the Tories have destroyed so many vital services.

The first part of this is absolutely correct in my experience.

slightly related, my grandad chose not to buy his home from the council when he could have done, he said his family had made their own money, his house should go to someone who needs it in future but equally this means he has no real assets so will likely need any future care funded for him. Working class his whole life, didn't believe in debt or savings, just paid everything as needed as it came his way and spends his pension as he goes. I guess I can't be too mad there. If he HAD bought the house I would have fully expected him to have sold it to fund care.

To be honest, I think I would have just bought a bolt myself. If they're so cheap, then the time spent ringing the council even once would have covered the cost of the bolt.

Also, waste collection is contracted out for a great many councils, so it may actually be some private sector ineptitude and not necessarily entirely due to council inefficiency in this case.

Oh my god. Do you work for my council? You've got the cheek for it. 🤨

Why should I have to pay for it? I've offered to go pick a new one up, they promised to send them on multiple occasions. I resent having to pay for a new bolt, but where would I buy one from? Why do I have to research that? If they had no intention of sending one, why keep on lying about it? Because that's how the council functions. Just lies,and gobbling off until the tax payer just gives up.

There's a neighbouring village to the town I live and I had to go to it several times,a,week because my mum lives there and she needs care. It's attached to our town by a country lane. The fields are interspersed with dykes. One four foot section of road over the dyke was unsafe so they closed the road to repair it. For a year. It took a year for them to deal with four foot of the road. When they finally opened it, they almost immediately closed it to build a wall on each side of the road. And then after a month they closed the road again for the walls to be taken down, moved and rebuilt. And actually about six months later they took down one of the walls and rebuilt it again.

I was so inconvenienced having to take long detours to get to my mums. And it cost me extra in petrol. Mind you, you'd probably say, it was only four foot, I should have built the road myself! 🙄

Excuse me?!

You literally said the bolt cost pennies, given the ordeal of trying to get one I'd have just bought one myself if that was the case. I absolutely agreed with you about shit customer service. You really are directing your anger to the wrong person here!