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!

And another. The bin lid on our wheelie bin broke off. Broken hinge pin. We phoned the council, explained in detail what was needed, i.e. just a new pin that we could fix ourselves. Told, no, it'll have to be a new bin and they'd send one to us. A council guy in a big van arrived, we opened our garden gate to let him in to take the old bin, he took one look at it, said, "all it needs is a new pin" - I'll go and get one, but then turned back to us and said, trouble is it's down on my sheet as a swap, so I'll get into trouble if I don't do what it says, so he took the bin, and brought back a brand new one. He said it happens all the time, and that most "bin lid" problems are easily repairable, but it depends on who takes the phone call and some always put it down as a "swap" even when, like ours, it's easily repairable. He said he had loads of bin lids and pins in the van he could have swapped. It's not just the money, it's the fact that these huge bins are just being dumped - that's not good for the environment, neither the dumping/recycling of them nor the resources/power used to make new ones that aren't really needed.

Yep same.

I've worked in LG for most of career. Dealing with the public is one of my least favourite parts of my job! Lots of very rude, and aggressive people out there. Also lots people seem incapable of understanding that their opinion on how/what to deliver might not be universally held!

It's water off a ducks back now, but people referring to you as idiots, or the clouncil or whatever does grind you down over time. With one or two exceptions, the vast majority of my colleagues are doing their best, with very limited resources.

Also, someone upthread commented on council directors being paid more than the PM. The PM is an elected politician. Directors and CExs are essentially like civil servants, and in the case of our council, is responsible for all services we provide, and about 12,000 staff. The salaries are high, but I know plenty of people working in the private sector earning equally high salaries with far less responsibility.

Poor people need fancy things to look forward too. Food banks is not the place to go to connect with people in your local area. It is nice when the local council has events that connects people from a diverse group. We had one free event and it was a night to be out and be cold together. Seeing other people cold too, provides weird solidarity feeling. You not by yourself.

One night, won't make much difference to the council budget. They can also recoup some cost from advertisement or fundraising.

How ridiculous. I've never been to a free fireworks display.
I have a friend who works for the housing department and she gets people wanting someone from the coucil to come around to change their lightbulbs.

Yes, the council may have contracted out the bin collection. But the reason why many services are contracted out is because councils were forced to put formerly inhouse services (like waste collection) out to tender.
Not necessarily because the council thought it was a good idea.

And by the time the contracts come up for renewal there is no inhouse capacity left because it has been sold off or made redundant, so the cycle continues.

When a service is contracted out, there's an extra layer of bureaucracy within the waste company, not to mention the extra communication and the loss of direct control over service delivery.

All the council can do is manage the service contract as a whole at arms length and obviously apply pressure etc but they have no day-to-day control over the individual specifics or issues.

Meanwhile, the contractor is trying it's best to squeeze the greatest amount of profit from the contract for its shareholders, which it can only do if everything is exactly standard and they do not do anything above the letter of the contract. It is inefficient for them to be delivering adhoc items and replacements so it isn't a top priority. And, in any case, they know they just won't empty "non-compliant" bins anyway.
They also know that their contract is locked in and in would likely be prohibitively expensive for the council to exit.

once a year we get a brochure of sorts from the council stating exactly where the money goes. I read it, I expect most people don’t and are therefore just ignorant

how is the council’s fault that so many people need foodbanks? People just need to stop voting Tory!

anyway YANBU. Our council doesn’t organise any fireworks at all.

Seriously? What's the point of this comment?

Did you friend also tell you about the hardworking families paying rent on substandard ill maintained council properties who just want basic repairs carried out so their heating works or their roof is repaired, or does she just like to perpetuate the myth that all council tenants are uneducated scroungers?

I've felt lately that there are some people are ever more demanding although some councils don't help themselves with some of their spending choices.

Equally though, if people want bloody fireworks they can pay to go to an event its not a necessity.

In general, I'd prefer low taxation and small government.

Anyone who can't cope with being in a first world country, step aside, live abroad (good luck!) and stop slowing everyone else down.

In what way are people not coping with being in a first world country?

All the people on here every day screaming about how the government/council should give them this, pay them that, be sympathetic to their particular foibles, etc etc etc. It's tiresome. Either stand on your own two feet, shut up or leave.

I don't think a few people venting their frustrations on a local Facebook page is particularly representative of society. Even on this thread, people have more balanced diplomatic views.

Of course councils aren't responsible for everything from fuel poverty to rising prices in the supermarket.

People on low incomes particularly are facing financial crisis and are undoubtedly bitter, angry and frightened and that results in misdirected anger, cynicism, finger pointing and frustration at their situation, even turning on each other, in short; civil unrest.

I'm not justifying the attitude of some but I can understand their feelings of anger and frustration at the current state of our country, looking for authorities to blame and losing all trust in the powers above.

If this borough always put on an annual firework display for local families then it being pulled due to cutbacks is a frightening reminder for residents of the austerity they're facing in their own lives. It's just another blow..

Given the massive workforce and the responsibility for budgets of millions of pounds, £90k is hardly overpaid. I'd have expected over £100k for that amount of responsibility and expertise.

The 90k salaries was just an example of the quiet rural area I live in.

But Yes in my county West Sussex there are 19 people on well over £100k plus expenses. The human resources director is on £249k.

@Rippled Ah, okay. I get where you're coming from.

I don't agree - yes, I know it's ironic, given that I've spent half the thread discussing why someone should have bought their own bin bolt.

But personally, I'd prefer good public services and a social welfare system.
And, to my mind, why shouldn't a first world country have that?
Isn't the point of civilisation being able to look after all of society.

I'd be prepared to pay more tax to fund that.

(I disagree with public spending on odd vanity projects, itself somewhat subjective I guess, but in principle I have no problem with spending on decent infrastructure, transport, health, social care, education, libraries and emergencies services and so forth)

£100k in SE is mid-level professional role. Sounds about right? Fir a director if you mean board level then again, that sounds reasonable. People will not bring skills and experience and take on those levels of responsibilities without the market rate of pay for doing so, understandably.

What should happen however is that people in the very senior roles who are responsible for strategy etc are held to account and fired without "golden goodbyes" when they don't perform well and meet targets.

The same people would no doubt be complaining on Facebook if the Council had put on a free fireworks display ... "that money could have been used for XYZ"

Some people just like to moan.

This kind of stuff is a constant source of conflict for me, if I'm honest.

On the one hand, I want to be compassionate for the less able and well off. I certainly do if they work. I think getting rid of council houses was the worst decision ever. They should have been kept for the people who do low paid but essential jobs.

On the other hand, I see ripe abuse and laziness and squandering of the abundance our ancestors created. I see too many people doing too little and propping their lives up with benefits. I can't wholly blame them - gov offers them. But I feel that too many jump into the safety net rather than fall. So I end up thinking "f em" and hoping they suffer. But I don't actually want that. I do want people pulling their weight as best they can, and I think we'd be ok if that happened - but, of course, people gyrate to making themselves eligible for benefits and doing the minimum they can get away with (eg 16 hours per week work) and I don't agree with that. But maybe that's me.

I don't know.

In my Council, 80% of our budget is spent on adult social care and children’s services. With a growing elderly demographic and more children coming into care placements costs are rising and this, together with inflation and labour costs means that this percentage will keep on increasing. To fund these costs, services in other areas will have to be cut. We need a fundamental reform of local government finance and a solution to the social care issues, however the government are currently avoiding both.

Your talking about a tiny section of benefit claimants and the majority making that “choice” are drug /alcohol dependent and or have undiagnosed mental health issues, trauma from their own upbringing, or cannot function in society. Of course some are just crooks; there will always be criminals in society.

The danger is that all benefit claimants or council house tenants are tarred with that brush. It’s a rhetoric constantly peddled by the media.

it’s a myth that anyone is living it up on benefits- the payments have been cut to the bone. It’s no life, just existing regardless of whether you’re working 16 hours a week in a low income job to top it up

Many are caught in a poverty trap with no resources to re train or further their education and “better themselves “.

Its far more complex than labelling sections of society as “lazy”.

I grew up in a rough council estate, and benefits fraud is still very rife there. People who can work boasting about not having to work, why should they work, currently we see many people applying for jobs in my workplace demanding less than 16 hours to avoid benefit cuts, despite the full-time hours being 3 x12 hour shifts per week, with around £1450 per month after tax. It is hard work but 4 full days off per week, flexible shifts and reasonable (still low I guess but more than benefits) pay...people still don't want it.

I truly do believe that the majority of benefits claims aren't fraudulent, but when you witness genuine fraud like I have, it can be difficult to break out of the mindset that everyone abuses the system. It has taken me a while to get there, and I hold my hands up to that. As I mentioned I have experienced real on the bones of my backside poverty.

I think councils need a full-scale reform, they need to be efficient and work for the people, but they also need the people to take some responsibility for themselves and accept that not everything is free.

No, with respect, I don't think I am concerned about a tiny section of people. I know that is the standard line that is trotted out, but I don't buy it.

I see so many people working the stat 16 hours and getting so much paid for.

It is exactly because of the lies and gaslighting that honest people are subjected to that push people towards the "f em" attitude. As I say, I go that way, then feel that's too much, but I see so many taking the mick that I then go back to where I started. No, it isn't a tiny minority getting too many freebies - it's a lot - but that is a matter of opinion I suppose, as to what constitutes "taking the mick".