Just been speaking to a colleague who has a deatched house in Upchurch & she said her Council Tax has gone up to £210 per month. Have not had a house for 18 months now so have lost touch with the reality of what you pay as a home owner but F*** me £210 a month. What the F*** do you actually get for that? Alternate week Bin collections .....and what exactly ?
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We're band C, and pay just over 90 quid a month...
i think thats the case anyway, money comes out of my account left right and centre, hard to keep track!!
To be fair only ben there 4 months but all good at the mo.
i find it very confusing, that book is ridiculous. got absolutely no idea how it works out. i just set up the direct debit and hope that it goes out. on the lewisham website the way to find out what to pay is based on the price of your house in 1993 or something.
same with tv licesnse payments, do you pay over 6 months then pay for next years? i'm going to totally shaft my flat mate when i move the tv licenece to new flat, and he's technically paid for some of it!
Education - Schools, Colleges
Social Care - Adults and Childrens
Social Housing
Street Cleaning and Rubbish Collection
Environmental protection - i.e. looking after your health, closing down dodgy takeaways etc
Planning controls
Parks
Swimming pools
Sports centres
Libraries
Local road maintenance
Police
Fire Service
But I would say that as I work in Local Govt.
Problem is - we all pay more, but HMG gives less and less to London and SE councils every year to keep vital services going! So services have to be cut as Govt. has capped rises to 5% max. Problem is that we have to pay for these services somehow - Either by direct taxation, Increased VAT, local taxation or council tax.
have you broken the board BDL?!
I'm under Swale as well, in a 3 bedder...
OOPS.
Getting back to the subject, most people don't realise how much is provided free at point of service by Local Govt. Problem is that it's becoming less as we have less money coming in.
I work in Social Care for adults, we're currently £1.5m overspent - and that's because we have to provide homecare and residential care to so many clients and our govt. settlement is the worst in London (and we have the largest elderly population in london)!
Social Care - Adults and Childrens
Social Housing
Street Cleaning and Rubbish Collection
Environmental protection - i.e. looking after your health, closing down dodgy takeaways etc
Planning controls
Parks
Swimming pools
Sports centres
Libraries
Local road maintenance
Police
Fire Service
**********
Out of that list, i benefit from street cleaning and rubbish collection, evironmental protection, local road maintenance, police and fire service. That's it, and i think its about 190 a month.
And why should i pay more than someone in a house of a lower value ? That is no guide in any way to income, the amount of use etc.
rubbish system.
Social Care - Adults and Childrens
Social Housing
Street Cleaning and Rubbish Collection
Environmental protection - i.e. looking after your health, closing down dodgy takeaways etc
Planning controls
Parks
Swimming pools
Sports centres
Libraries
Local road maintenance
Police
Fire Service
What has Greenwich Council ever done for us??
Brought peace?
there is if you're unemployed in a council house, have four kids you drive to school, go home and read a library book, run through a park to the gym, cool down with a swim, before going home and starting a fire with the chip pan when you get home, only to discover the old bill have picked up your kids for breaking their ASBOs.
Then you're getting proper money's worth :-)
park - only to play football on which my club payed £675 for
leisure centre - pay £35 a month for
band A = houses upto about £120,000 is about £80 per month.
you can still buy a 3 bed terrace in crappy area (not ex council estate) for £60,000
not too sure whether we get great value. missed the bin collection this morning. they come about 6.45am. too early for me.
not my argument at all, my argument is why the level of council tax is based on what you residence was worth 16 years ago, with no consideration on what you as a household take out of the council pot, or on what your current income may be.
That to me is unjust.
How is there less coming in? Council tax has been rising steadily above inflation. Plus councils have lowered their costs (reducing services, selling off council houses, closing virtually all youth clubs, etc.) and have increased their incomes (again selling council houses, parking permits and parking fines). It just doesn' t make sense.
What needs to be done is reduce wastage. I know for instance that last year Maidstone Borough Council wasted 12k on a CMS system for their website that didn't work. There are hundreds of councils, all wasting money on IT projects, road projects, etc. If they actually talked to each other and shared resources millions would be saved.
Also there is the short-termism (for want of a better word) of politics. So many plans are designed for short term gains and therefore votes. Nobody cares that it may cost more long run or that when the political wind changes the incoming party will wipe it all out at huge expense and start on their own plans.
main road in sidcup goes from bexley borough to greenwich council and half way along it turns into a bumpy road