To be upset our town is so run down now?

[Blueybanditbingochilli]

Day off with my kids (toddler and 5 year old) so thought I would take them to the park for a picnic. It’s a walk I’ve done a thousand times this year, yet today it really sank in what a dump our town now is.

About 3 or 4 times on the (short) walk, we had to detour into the road as the weeds and hedges by the pavement are so overgrown they’re literally impassable.

Rubbish, nappies and disposable vapes lying in the road/walkways. There was a kind of ‘tide’ of rubbish against the wall adjacent to the path - crisp packets, tissues, cigarette ends.

Just before we got there I felt something squelch in my flip flops (yep), looked down and clearly some dog poo had somehow flicked into my shoe and I had trodden it in 🤮 it sounds funny but it really isn’t when it happens to you! There was loads of dog poo in general that I constantly had to remind DC1 to avoid.

It just looks so run down. I understand councils have had cuts but this isn’t a little bit worse, it’s a lot worse. Where is all the money going? I honestly can’t see where it’s being spent because the entire town is a dump. Of course I blame the Tories (and know it’ll take time for things to improve yada yada) but honestly it looks like we have no council at all.

Just a rant!

Don't worry, it made me smile!

Where is the money going?

Over 90% of council spending goes on the statutory responsibility to provide adult and child social care.

There is genuinely very little left for non-statutory responsibilities.

40% cut in central government funding over the last 14 years.

Councils of all political flavours are strapped for cash. Weeds and bushes are low down the list after all the other things they have to do.

The council cuts have been savage.
The tories did this deliberately.

It is outrageous.
Apart from essential services it is important to have a nice environment.
Clean well kept and litter free.
But the tories made sure we are not worthy of this.

But labour don’t seem in a rush to reinstate the services either

100% agree they are not in any rush to fix anything.
Totally useless too.
I didn't blame them because they didn't spend the last 12 years in power and have only been in power 2 months. I
Don't expect much from them.

Which tax would you like them to raise in order to make up the shortfall?

Meanwhile many councils are sat on huge reserves they can't actually spent, because they're "allocated" funds which can only be spent on specific things, such as capital reserves. Councils just do the best they can to use these reserves to generate income, such as putting money in the highest paying bank account (when many were caught by the Icelandic bank collapses!). Some use it to buy properties (but then stung, like our council, after buying the Wilko building on the High Street who then went bankrupt leaving a huge bad debt for the unpaid rent).

I think it's time that public finances were overhauled to get rid of the "grant" system and make it easier for councils to use their reserves. I believe this was the whole point of the Tory plan to defund them, but, true to form, they didn't realise the limitations on how councils can spend their reserves and had no
appetite to reform the rules/laws.

Our local council spent £300k refurbishing our local village library (heaven knows how, it's tiny!). And then within a year closed it down! Councillors confirmed they'd have £300k left from a grant and "needed" to spend it otherwise it would have to be repaid to central government. Rather than just send it back, they decided to spend it, on, literally "anything" which is why no one thought about the almost inevitable closure shortly afterwards.

Same with all the temporary cycle lanes during covid. Govt gave councils grants to make cycle lanes, and again, "use it or lose it" so councils spent the money on cones, planters etc whether needed or not, and most of those cycle lanes etc are now history. Presumably the govt expected councils to put in proper permanent cycle lanes, but that just didn't happen in most places (of course, shortage of materials, staff working from home or on furlough, business closures, etc., made it hard for councils to put proper long term solutions in place within the time frames allowed).

I don’t want them to raise tax I want them to cut spending on social care.

How can they cut spending on social care when they have a legal responsibility to provide it? And what happens to those adults and children who need it?

They definitely ought not to be cutting spending on social care.

You think we should just keep funding it in the manner we do as it continues to spiral upwards, until… when?

Councils legally have to fund social care - they do not have a choice - that's why so many of them are bankrupt.

I agree, they shouldn't have to fund it. Care needs to be in a national not for profit framework which is centrally funded and joined to the NHS.

But until something changes, councils have to pay. They don't have a choice.

If you reduce adult social care spending, then you will get even worse bed blocking in hospitals and push nhs waiting lists even higher.

The biggest issue in social care is the number of expensive temp staff they use, and use of agencies to provide care. A child I work with gas a care package costing around a million per year as has 2 full time nurses. That's 8 full time salaries on 8 hour shifts plus 2 cover people for sickness /holidays. Employed direct from nhs this would cost around 400k per year, still a huge amount, but much less than the 980k it costs via an agency

It's perfectly possible to do a degree of rewilding in local parks but it actually requires knowhow and effort to do it so that it looks good.

This! I'm currently visiting Munich and parts of the Englischer Garten are fenced off and rewilded and it looks absolutely beautiful and a million miles away from some scruffy weeds growing up through a pavement.

That's ridiculous.
What sort of society do you want to create?
Nice neat paths no weeds.
But elderly people and children needing care and support being left?
Wobble ya head.

Most of Europe is ten times cleaner. It’s a really sad fact but go just about anywhere and it’s a lot less littered and run down.
I worked at Citizens Advice for 3 years and I would say that a massive chunk of council money goes on housing and benefits. As rents in U.K. are now so high and there are far fewer council properties than are needed to meet demand there is less money than ever in the pot for other things.

This is just insane - why is this thread all about council cleaning? why not about people not littering???
Has anyone tried to tell people off for dropping their litter in public spaces? no?

Pigs People snacking on a bus and leaving their empty paper bags/cans etc on the next seat, nobody bats an eyelid, no penalties for this either.

Yeah, let's stop social care and increase taxes to clean for this instead

I’ve never seen anyone drop litter to tell off.

It’s not about weeds though is it? Sanitation is a basic tenant of a civilised society. Leaving rubbish to pile up and forcing small children to walk on main roads isn’t civilised. It’s not about them needing care and support - it’s how much we as a country are willing to sacrifice to do so. I’d happily sacrifice graffiti cleaning but not safe roads and sanitation, sorry.

This is true too. No one seems to take pride in keeping their local streets clean the way they must elsewhere.
DH did confront some teens who stopped at traffic lights in their car, opened the car door and put their McDonalds wrappers and drinks on the road next to their car. Disgraceful. He jammed the paper bag and cups in their windscreen wipers. By then lots of people were looking but DH is quite big and the teens looked v sheepish and drove off asap when the lights turned green.
I guess loads of people must chuck stuff out as they drive as the roadsides are an eyesore with litter 😢
When you look at most of the rubbish lying around it’s fast food and sweet wrappers - why aren’t people bringing up their kids not to litter. It’s basic decent behaviour.

Because the thread is not just about bloody litter. It's also about the neglect the council have for their own pathways pavements etc. I'm talking about bushes weeds etc NOT LITTER

A big problem is people that care are now massively outnumbered by people who don't.

It's not difficult to pick your own rubbish up. People just don't give a shit anymore. It's a vicious circle. Live in a shit hole...treat it like a shit hole... Becomes more of a shit hole and on and on it goes.