Local government should remember the interests of the taxpayers

Much of our political debate is about refugees, economic migrants, people on benefits and in poverty. It is about cultural attitudes, the use of language, the abuse of power and the need to reduce inequalities. These are important matters, and most of us want to work away at reducing poverty, alleviating suffering and reducing community conflicts.

It is also important on the eve of local elections to remember that democracy is also the system by which we appoint Councillors to run services for us, to spend taxpayers money wisely and to assist us in our daily lives. Beneath all the sound and fury of national politics, claims of malfeasance and arguments over net zero we do need sometimes to discuss what Councils can achieve to make theĀ  lives better for all who pay their own way, work hard for family and community and who seek to do the right thing.

There are three things Councils do that are experienced by all voters. They impose a Council tax on us. They collect our refuse and recycling. They provide a network of roads and paths free at the point of use as monopoly provider. There is tooĀ  littleĀ  talk about these.

Keeping the Council Tax down should be a prime aim. This can be done by limiting theĀ  number of policies and areas of intervention to the essential. Councils do not need to run leisure, sporting facilitiesĀ  and entertainment in competition with private companies doing the same.Ā  Ā They do not not need large direct works departments where contractors can do a cheaper and better job.Ā  It can be done by driving efficiency and higher quality throughout the main service areas. This is especially necessary where they have a monopoly over provision. They need to control the size of the overhead.

Providing a first class refuse and recycling service is important. There should be a minimum standard of weekly collection, with shorter gaps in service in large urban areas especially in summer. The more they can do to recycle in a way which cuts landfill costs and adds to revenue from the recycled product or energy generated, the better.

Everyone who goes out daily has regular experience of the roads and pavements. Too many Councils seek to drive the car, delivery lorry and service sector van off the road. We are affronted by a growing array ofĀ  differential and frequently changing speed limits, light controlled junctions with long built in delays, priority lanes, badly designed intersections and a galaxy of road signs and painted instructions on the carriageway. There are even more restrictions and complications should you wish to park your vehicle other than at home.

They insist on putting main service pipes and cables under the middle of main roads to maximise the inconvenience of repairing and upgrading them by closing all or part of the highway to do so. Bad Councils spend a small fortune on regular and incremental changes to reduce the flow of traffic.Ā  Hours of time are lost in jams and slow moving traffic. The single biggest annoyance mainstream voters have with Councils is their collective refusal to improve junctions to smooth flows, to tailor capacity to need and to see that good roads are crucial to getting food to shops, patients to hospitals, fire engines to fires, children to school and many of us to work. We have just witnessed the commuter rebellion against the return to five days a week in the office. This is a protest against the railways and the road system. Good Councils improve roads and recognise the need for less congestion. That improves safety and reduces pollution. Keeping people safe must include having some roads for through traffic that work and do not mix cars with pedestrians.

 

170 Comments

  1. Gary Megson
    May 4, 2022

    Please be aware that I will not be basing my vote on Thursday on recycling and service pipes. I will be basing it on the attitude of the current Prime Minister that the rules don’t apply to him and that he is accountable to no one.

    1. Lifelogic
      May 4, 2022

      It is absurd that in order to express an opinion on this dire socialist, tax to death, piss down the drain, manifesto ratting, anti-car, expensive intermittent energy pushing and red tape pushing government we have to use local elections to do it. Often replacing people in local government with even worse ones just to demonstrate our anger.

      Surely some better system could be found? But then local government is usually very inefficiently & poorly run too.

      1. DavidJ
        May 4, 2022

        I worked in local government for a period after graduating and had to do a course on local government law. One thing I remember in particular was the restriction on any activity that was “ultra vires”; i.e. acting or doing anything beyond one’s proper legal power or authority. Clearly that principle was binned years ago!

    2. Narrow Shoulders
      May 4, 2022

      Please be aware that I will not be basing my vote on Thursday on recycling and service pipes.

      Have you ever?

      Local elections – local issues. Our Conservative Council in the Prime Minister’s constituency does a very good job. They will get my three Xs to maintain such service even though I would not even urinate on the Conservative box in a General Election at this time.

      Not to do so would be cutting off my nose to spite my face.

    3. Everhopeful
      May 4, 2022

      Ā£3 million more to Ukraine apparently.
      Yet all his warmongering hasnā€™t taken the eye off his ā€œthereā€™s no dangerā€ partying!
      ā€œWhat virus?ā€ He chortled.
      ā€œViruses are only for the little ( masked) people!ā€.
      GlugšŸ„‚

    4. IanT
      May 4, 2022

      More fool you.

      We have good services here and the costs appear to be well managed.
      So I will vote to retain our current (Conservative) Council.

    5. Mickey Taking
      May 4, 2022

      the PM has little to do with how Councils are run and what they impose their will on — save your fire for the GE.

      1. Mickey Taking
        May 4, 2022

        why hold back?

      2. glen cullen
        May 4, 2022

        I hear what youā€™re saying but national government imposed regional mayors, regional police commissioners, local speed limit initiatives, cycle lane initiatives, funding incentives and restrictions, net-zero, local planning etc ā€¦Iā€™d say national government have a big influence on local government

    6. Shirley M
      May 4, 2022

      You are wasting your time here. None of our politicians put the UK first. Sit John is one of the most loyal politicians to the country, but when it comes to the crunch, even Sir John will put Boris and his party before the wishes of the electorate. The UK politicians think they are here to rule, not serve. Democracy in the UK is a facade.

      1. Brian Tomkinson
        May 4, 2022

        Shirley,
        I totally agree.

      2. glen cullen
        May 4, 2022

        I totally agree

    7. Richard1
      May 4, 2022

      But how about Starmer and rayner and their rank, sanctimonious hypocrisy? Sir Beer Starmer quite clearly breached the lockdown rules at least as badly as did Boris, surely you wonā€™t be voting Labour after that?!

    8. Hope
      May 4, 2022

      Network of roads free at point of use.. what?

      Some charge to park on road outside your house like Guildford Surrey. Others charge to park on roads near high streets. How about vehicle excise licence, fuel duty and VAT, what do these taxes get used for?

      Then govt. and councils collude to charge tax for the same thing two or three times over like Adult social care- general tax, council tax and NIC! Remember the promise of council tax freeze? To be ratted on by Javid with huge hikes above inflation.

      Same for flood defence in council tax and the useless bureaucratic Environment Agency which is there to only serve its staff and pensions.

      Tax tax tax. Work from home never directly answer calls, put through range of options many reminders about personal information, try to put people off calling and go on line but never directly answer query.

      1. Hope
        May 4, 2022

        Oh income generation through speeding non accident black spots and now congestion charges everywhere! This is your govt allowing this not councils. They only do what your govt allows.
        It must be your blame deflection week JR for elections tomorrow.

    9. a-tracy
      May 4, 2022

      Gary, who are you hoping gets elected in your local council area? Would it be different to the party you have already got today?

  2. Ian Wragg
    May 4, 2022

    Council tax is poor value for money.
    Most office based employees are wfh. Service is abysmal.
    Our Council is wasting millions lowering kerbs and putting coloured surfaces down whilst ignoring the pot holes.
    We have independent councillors who were limp dumb until they got trounced at the GE.

    1. Ian Wragg
      May 4, 2022

      Windmills today providing a massive 2.5gw whilst gas and nuclear providing 82% of demand.
      Time to wake up and smell the coffee as our American friends would say.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        May 4, 2022

        Oh, I woke up in 1979, and that smell sure was not coffee…

        1. Mickey Taking
          May 4, 2022

          and you never moved on ….

        2. glen cullen
          May 4, 2022

          There was a time when you wrote reasoned debate, structured an alternative argument and presenting interesting comments ā€¦now youā€™re just insulting

      2. Beecee
        May 4, 2022

        Boris is casting around to blame somebody else for the high energy prices. Net Zero, I think, was introduced by the Coalition Government (out host will correct if I am wrong) with Ed Davy as Energy Minister. It is Boris’s enthusiastic adherence to this policy, without ever, even today, considering the downstream consequences of this policy, which is the main problem.

        When it comes to ‘green’ Boris is all throttle and no brakes! Much like everything else he does.

      3. Lifelogic
        May 4, 2022

        +1 it was time about 20 years back but once some mad group think religion takes over it can have a lot of inertia!

      4. Everhopeful
        May 4, 2022

        +1
        If there were enough wind to fuel all our needs, would we be able to stand upright?

      5. Mickey Taking
        May 4, 2022

        You can certainly get a coffee in Wokingham – but not much else.

        1. hefner
          May 4, 2022

          Not only coffee shops, some charity shops are rather good.

          1. Mickey Taking
            May 4, 2022

            that does wonders for our economy- @ Ā£2 per slightly ‘used’ paperback.
            An over-priced but delicious ‘Cook’ branch, – a ‘help for heroes’ sad store, a great card-shop, decent bookshop and err?

        2. hefner
          May 4, 2022

          Sorry, Mickey, I forgot the winking emoji.

      6. glen cullen
        May 4, 2022

        Thanks for the update….hope someone is telling Boris

    2. Lifelogic
      May 4, 2022

      +1

    3. Lifelogic
      May 4, 2022

      Abysmal value not poor and WFH means sitting at home. Not so easy to fill potholes, police well, provide decent social services or collect trash from home.

      1. Mickey Taking
        May 4, 2022

        – and Rod Stewart got warned to stop filling in pot-holes when his car got ‘grounded’ where he lives.

      2. Fedupsoutherner
        May 4, 2022

        Agree L/L. It’s just taken me 32 mins to talk to someone about my claim for state pension. I filled in the claim online and gave all my bank details. 3 weeks later I get a message to ring them to give them the name on my bank account!! 32 mins to tell them what they already know. I despair.

        1. Lifelogic
          May 5, 2022

          This is repeated endlessly almost everywhere in government in my experience.

    4. a-tracy
      May 4, 2022

      Lowering kerbs isnā€™t great for walkers, wheelchair users and pram pushers, I prefer road ramps down to road level with the pavement all one level, each new pavements should have a secure cable run in it. Too many of our local pavements are terrible, one Lane a major road now is too narrow, gets overgrown with spikey hedges, and is full of cracks, potholes and uneven paving slabs. They allow new builders to dig up all the pavements and re-lay them poorly, surely they should have to re-lay them as though new not just uneven channels it is a good way for the council to share the cost and the builders have teams of tarmac guys anyway.

      Thousands of new homes, still have unmade roads, poor pavements nearby, they donā€™t get them to put in cycle lanes, there used to be schemes for things like this why did they stop? Surely big new housing estates should consider the lives of the 600 new home dwellers they plonk on the edges of town.

    5. JoolsB
      May 4, 2022

      We donā€™t have any kerbs because we have no pavements or street lights and the only bus that used to stop at the bottom of the lane twice a day has now been withdrawn because of cut backs by the Conservative led Cornwall Council. And for all these non-services it costs us Ā£3,000 a year out of our modest pensions but according to our deluded Tory MPs, we should be glad we are living where we have a Tory led council because they are so much cheaper than Labour ones.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        May 5, 2022

        We see the expensive consequences of Tory austerity and cuts to central council funding in new ways every day.

        For instance, many cash-strapped councils have cut back on tree maintenance in leafy suburbs. This means that the crowns of e.g. lime trees, instead of being pruned back seasonally to about 8m high maximum, now grow to 20m and corresponding width. As anyone with much gardening knowledge will explain, this means a commensurate increase in root mass and extent, raising and breaking pavements, blocking sewers and disrupting other buried services, never mind the greatly increased leaf litter blocking drains and gutters.

        It really isn’t working, is it?

    6. Mickey Taking
      May 5, 2022

      we have candidates who flood us with photo opportunity, them gazing wistfully at green fields, staring at traffic lights, admiring cycle lanes, litter picking, wide ‘flytipping-free’ country lanes, self-congratulating group hugs. One even claims to ‘keep council tax low’ whoever thought our council tax was low in the first place?

  3. oldwulf
    May 4, 2022

    My own small local authority has spent around Ā£43m on the refurbishment of an entertainment venue. The project is several years late, very substantially over budget and is not yet open for business. I believe this has put pressure on other services. Council tax is high.

    After this Thursday, I expect the existing controlling party will retain control on an average turnout of around 25%.

    There must be a better system ?

    1. Lifelogic
      May 4, 2022

      There could hardly be a worse one – incompetence, often blatant corruption, vested interests, vote buying, votes based on national politicsā€¦

    2. Clough
      May 4, 2022

      Local council elections are there so that we can give the ruling party in Westminster a good kick up the backside in between general elections – whoever that party is. Local councils’ funding and spending policies are so tightly controlled by central government that our vote makes little difference in that regard. A protest vote is all the democracy we have left.

      1. glen cullen
        May 4, 2022

        +1

    3. Peter Parsons
      May 4, 2022

      The system used for electing councillors in Scotland and Northern Ireland is far superior to the one in England.

  4. Everhopeful
    May 4, 2022

    Nor do they need to take over huge swathes of public space ( forcibly) to host lengthy, noisy events which have nothing to do culturally with the vast majority of the council-tax paying population.
    Why do councils think they should foist noise and disruption on us just so they can virtue signal?

  5. DOM
    May 4, 2022

    The article ignores one important point, that councils are now sources of party political and trades union power. Delivering cost-effective services to the end-user and taxpayer is a secondary and at times a zero consideration for councils. We see this phenomena at both local and national levels.

    The taxpayer is in effect financing party politics and union parasitism. The taxpayer is financing cultural Marxism, progressive fascism and racism though some have the temerity to label it racial equality

    Road and street names changed to pander to Labour and their year zero fascists. Museums and libraries purged though they call it decolonisation. This is what Labour believe in and the Tory party now support as an act of political convenience

    The entire system is infected by political and ideological activists

    Remember the Tories have been in power since 2010. This party has sold our nation into the arms of the Left

  6. Peter
    May 4, 2022

    ā€˜Keeping the Council Tax down should be a prime aimā€™

    Unfortunately that is not the case in my borough. Neither Conservatives nor the current Liberal Democrat council get anywhere near it.

    We pay more than twice the council tax of Wandsworth less than ten miles away. Of course they both talk about keeping costs down and value for money but nothing changes. The system has been rigged so that Wandsworth gets enough support to make it look good as a flagship Conservative icon. We are written off as well-heeled, a leafy suburb. Yet Wandsworth properties are generally worth more.

    To rub salt into the sound both parties are intent on turning the borough into a copy of Croydon with ugly tower blocks.

    Local politics is just as bad as national politics.

    1. Sharon
      May 4, 2022

      Peter

      I believe I may live in the same borough as you. Iā€™ve seen those tall blocks in the town and they look awful. Iā€™ve noticed large single dwellings hide behind boarding and reappear as flats, or sometimes semis. The area, since the Lib Dem council arrived was a much nicer place. Not so well heeled now. Remember the Ā£60,000 bus stop? And in the shopping centre a couple of community centres have popped up in recent monthsā€¦. in the shopping centre which closes at six? How much did those cost the tax payer?

      1. Sharon
        May 4, 2022

        Before the Lib Dem council arrived not since

    2. glen cullen
      May 4, 2022

      Remove council tax altogether and replace with 100% central government funded grant

  7. Everhopeful
    May 4, 2022

    How about the latest madness (employed here) of not cutting back the verges for greencr*p reasons? At one particular junction cow parsley completely prevents a view of the oncoming traffic.
    And yet they are happy to build and build and build.

    1. alan jutson
      May 4, 2022

      Everhopeful
      Agreed, it is happening in many areas, yet streams, rivers, and ditches fill up with debris, block water flow and lead to localised flooding because they are rarely ever cleared.
      Tree lopping, cutting back bushes to preserve pathways/footpaths, fixing street lighting promptly, hardly ever seen.
      Roads and footpaths are now a safety risk and a disgrace, as they crumble into major disrepair.
      Most Local authorities it would seem to me are just an extension of Government, with the collection of vast amounts of money from Council tax , parking fees, and then the distribution of a whole range of benefits.

      1. Everhopeful
        May 4, 2022

        +many
        Absolutely.
        I really struggle to think what we pay council tax for.
        OK we get rubbish collection but 99% of that is unnecessary packaging, NOT asked for by us!!
        Councils spend our money on wokery.

        1. Mickey Taking
          May 5, 2022

          They have to employ people to do all manner of odd functions – it all costs our money !

    2. glen cullen
      May 4, 2022

      The loony greens in Australia lobbied to stop cutting back acres of firebreaksā€¦.and the result was uncontrolled massive bushfires…..stop listening to the loony greens

      1. Everhopeful
        May 4, 2022

        +many
        Somerset Levels, European dams, building on flood plains, Australian rivers.
        Trad husbandry neglected ā€¦.purposely provoking ā€œnaturalā€ disaster.

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          May 4, 2022

          I live near the river Severn in Shropshire. For two years running now we have had disastrous flooding. They have not cleared any ditches or dredged the river for years.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            May 5, 2022

            Who are “they”?

          2. Mickey Taking
            May 5, 2022

            NLH – whoever did it previously?

          3. Nottingham Lad Himself
            May 6, 2022

            Many of the ditches are on private farmland and have been for generations.

            Why should the CT payer have to pay for the owner’s land maintenance?

  8. R.Grange
    May 4, 2022

    I see Leeds, Lincolnshire and Wiltshire and probably others no longer run a booking system for recycling centres. So why do I need to go through this hassle in Wokingham, if it’s local not national policy?

    1. Michelle
      May 4, 2022

      I complained to my council about the booking system put in during covid, which in my personal opinion was not warranted and complete overkill and should be lifted now.

      I know and believe what I see with my own eyes and not what I’m told to believe by mainstream politicians or media. I noted the rise in fly tipping as I drove around. There is no excuse for that at all but it is happening.
      The council replied telling me there is no evidence at all that fly tipping is increasing in fact the opposite and there are no plans to remove the booking system.

      Credit where it’s due, two days later I’m sent an email with an apology and amendment to all the fancy graphs and waffle, telling me that in fact yes, fly tipping has increased since the booking system has been in place.
      Which brings me back to my point of believing what you see and hear for yourself not what you are told to believe.

      Another issue many local to me complain about is all the extra costs for taking things to the dump/tip. Then there are so many things that they won’t take now, but I suppose that won’t increase the fly tipping either!!!!

    2. IanT
      May 4, 2022

      On balance, I would prefer to just turn up but I can generally book a “same day” slot anyway. My wife prefers the booking system, as she thinks it makes me schedule my trips more often…

    3. Know-Dice
      May 4, 2022

      One of the reasons other than Covid was that West Berkshire (Newbury, Thatcham etc) were unwillingly to pay their share of the cost of running these places.

      Mind you Reading and Wokingham have probably spent more on adding this facility, infrastructure and staff than the amount they would have recovered from West Berkshire…

      That’s councils for you…box ticked, next….

    4. Mickey Taking
      May 4, 2022

      I know – every time I go there on booked visits, there are more staff chatting than users unloading.
      I think our green waste is still taken miles to Oxfordshire to be composted – can anyone confirm? Surely it would make sense to find a place in our council area to do this?

      1. hefner
        May 4, 2022

        The RE3 centre in Reading appeared reasonably busy the last few times I went there this spring, with at least one or two big lorries with their loads of heavily compacted papers, cartons and cardboards ready to go, but I have no idea where to?
        According to the panel there the amount recycled was between 70 and 75% (over my three visits)
        The green waste appears to be processed (but not locally) into some mulch/compost now on sale at the exit of the centre. Unfortunately, the price of it is higher than what is available in discounter shops, even if a bit cheaper than in my nearest garden centre.

        1. Mickey Taking
          May 4, 2022

          I think food waste goes to Wallingford, and green waste to Nuneham Courtenay – memory possibly playing tricks.

    5. glen cullen
      May 4, 2022

      Individual household recycling is still a con, it all gets mixed together in a central processing centresā€¦.my council has just supplied us with coloured plastic wheelie bins (a blight on the landscape) at great cost so they had to reduce the collection to fortnightly ….are large plastic wheelie bins part of the climate change plan ?

      1. Everhopeful
        May 4, 2022

        +1
        I have often seen the recycling sacks chucked into the general crusher.
        And I also saw a whole bed being fed into the crusherā€¦a local with ā€œconnectionsā€ā€¦the rest of us have to pay extra for disposal of large items ( yet apparently all COULD be crushed).
        Wheelie bins are a disgrace. Ghastly Marxist stepping stones leading to ā€œSmart Binsā€ in ā€œSmart Citiesā€.

    6. alan jutson
      May 4, 2022

      Indeed I have moaned about this constantly since it was introduced for so called Covid reasons.
      The tip has been working for the last two years at about half its normal capacity.
      Have written to the Council and R3 on a number of occasions, but no sensible reply.
      Likewise the charging for some sorts of rubbish continues, although central Government seems to be waking up on this, and they wonder why fly tipping has increased.

      1. Norman
        May 4, 2022

        I tackled my district council when COVID restrictions were all removed and the policy remained. The muddled reply included inter alia keeping out trade waste, keeping out households from the adjacent district or county, etc, etc.

        I pointed out that …

        1) a more zealous policy would lead to more dumping of waste in farm gateways, etc
        2) many households near a border have to drive further if they are only allowed to use waste sites in their own county or district and are banned from using the nearest site to their house. Does the council want more CO2 emissions?

        I did not receive a reply. The jobsworth responsible probably could not think of one.

        The district actually does have two waste sites that are so overcrowded that they need a booking system most of the day, i.e. due to those sites being too small in the first place. However, it has other places including mine where the site typically has 5-10 cars in attendance, with a lack of any queuing or congestion.

        I suspect the rule has been kept on to fulfil some deep bureaucratic need. But as I do not have a bureaucratic mind, I do not know exactly what it is. Like COVID , is it a desperate desire to control us?

        1. Mickey Taking
          May 5, 2022

          we still have a chap checking at the entrance, another doing data entry to check for your booking, and then the other validates you live in the area.

  9. Donna
    May 4, 2022

    There’s no point Sir John whinging about Councils’ policies towards roads and road users.

    They are implementing Government policy, which is to promote the use of public transport, cycling and walking and to inconvenience drivers as much as possible in order to force them off the roads.

    And when it comes to road maintenance and public utility, they are following the laws and regulations which have been set by the Government.

    The problem starts in Westminster.

    1. Michelle
      May 4, 2022

      A comment I was going to make myself. The councils are not so independent of Westminster or indeed the party each councillor is affiliated to.
      At our last local elections the Labour stooge tried to have me believe that a vote for them has nothing to do with the party headquarters and its policies.
      I may look stupid, but please!!

    2. acorn
      May 4, 2022

      Agreed Donna. Local Government spends about a quarter of all government spending. Specific central government grants 54% and formula grant 7%; Business Rates allowed to be retained by central government formula 17% and Council Tax 22%. Local government spending power has been reduced by 16% since 2010. Central government grants ā€“ including retained business rates ā€“ were cut 37% in real-terms between 2009/10 and 2019/20, from Ā£41.0bn to Ā£26.0bn in 2019/20 prices, according to the Institute for Government. Not that the average voter will be aware of any of the above.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        May 4, 2022

        No, the BBC are near-silent on it, I seem to note.

    3. Everhopeful
      May 4, 2022

      +1
      I can never work out whether JR is being loyally disingenuous.
      Or whether he can not understand the harm the govt. means us.
      Or whether I have just got it all wrongā€¦..but it all does seem like utter folly.

      1. glen cullen
        May 4, 2022

        My distain for our government(s) began when all parties ignored the peopleā€™s decision at the referendum ā€“ it clearly showed contempt for the people and democracy ā€¦and its havenā€™t got any better since

    4. Hope
      May 4, 2022

      +1
      Pass the blame week Donna.

    5. glen cullen
      May 4, 2022

      +1 Councillors are just replicating the gravy train of parliamentā€¦and to get the money you must do their bidding ā€¦not the bidding of the voters

    6. David L
      May 4, 2022

      And this morning, as most mornings, cyclists in Station Road Wokingham ignored the provided lanes and risk their own safety by mingling with the motor traffic. Maybe WBC could put one of their “Enforcement Officers” on duty to direct the miscreants to the lanes we all pay for to keep them safe.

      1. David L
        May 4, 2022

        Correction: Wellington Road, not Station Road. Only lived in the town 30 years so still getting used to street names!

        1. Mickey Taking
          May 4, 2022

          and can you figure out what roads to use when you want to go somewhere? We should be sent free road maps to help. Instead of a bypass helping we’ve got road traffic confusion.

  10. Mark B
    May 4, 2022

    Good morning.

    My waste bin is collected once every two weeks all year long. I do not generate much waste and recycle as much as possible, and many do the same. However, some are not as fortunate and generate more waste. So much so that there bins are overflowing and vermin takes advantage of a potential oppotunity of a free meal leaving rubbish strewn everywhere. Council are forced to do this once fortnightly collection due to EU rules. Now that we are supposedly out of the EU one would expect Central Government to amend the rules so that councils can collect rubbish once a week.

    My point is. Whilst indeed it is good that we have councils doing the things we need, we require Central Government to free us of the shackles the EU has imposed upon us through various directives. One being that silt washed from arable into rivers and streams and forms silt, is considered waste which has to be treated and therefore is left due to cost resulting in flooding.

    Another area, which fortunately does not affect me, is Social Housing. Here again councils are struggling due to the high numbers of non-British people who have been granted rights to remain housing ahead of the rest. This is again not the fault of the councils but, yes you guessed it, Central Government and its policiy of MASS IMMIGRATION.

    As mentioned by others yesterday and before. Because we have a government that just likes to talk and nothing else, much more mundane but important problems are never resolved. It is on this basis that my voting intentions will be formed. Others might also consider whether or not voting in the same council / party will result in better services when so much is dependent on what Central Government do.

    Time to pass on the message šŸ˜‰

    Reply Pleased to report Wokingham Borough keeps its weekly refuse collection and this is legal.

  11. Everhopeful
    May 4, 2022

    Iā€™m honestly not sure that the desire to work at home will last when more and more people do it.
    I know someone who opted for ā€œ Shofficeā€ life. Now his neighbour also has a shoffice so ā€œto get some peaceā€ he has bought one of those big motorhome things so he can drive somewhere and park up to do some work!!
    The utterly dystopian notion of everyone stuck in their horrible, tiny-gardened estates with kids and dogs and mowers and delivery vans is enough to cause a second mental health emergency. Thatā€™s before the energy bills hit and then there will be ā€¦.The Great Silence.šŸ˜±

    1. IanT
      May 4, 2022

      Maybe the thought of going to a warm office (paid for by the employer) will encourage people back there this Winter? šŸ™‚

      1. Everhopeful
        May 4, 2022

        +1
        I bet youā€™re right there!

    2. Mickey Taking
      May 4, 2022

      or even – ‘The Great Shiver’ ? while energy providers have stashed Ā£billions in the bank prior to it getting cold.

      1. Everhopeful
        May 4, 2022

        +1

  12. PeteB
    May 4, 2022

    Sir J, no mention of their powers in local planning? An area where they often challenge national government policy.

    ‘They do not need large direct works departments’ – thus is precisely why so many local councils contract services to third parties, often ending up with more expense and less good service. Perhaps local councils do need an in house legal and contracts team that is market leading?

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 4, 2022

      This democracy thing is terrible, especially at a local level isn’t it?

      1. Mickey Taking
        May 4, 2022

        do you mean having it, or being denied it?

  13. Sea_Warrior
    May 4, 2022

    All I asked my councillors to do for me in the past year is to remove the requirement to make a convoluted booking to visit my local Household Waste Recycling Centre – i.e. to make visiting as easy as it was before the pandemic. Have they done so? No.

    1. Richard II
      May 4, 2022

      +1

    2. Sir Joe Soap
      May 4, 2022

      Well the classic in Oxon is to pay council employees at the tip to stop people getting rid of their household waste on the basis that it’s “not household”. Paid their wages out of council tax, they want extra money per bag from me to place innocuous product in their segregated piles. Then they complain about fly-tipping. The obvious solution of course place the bag back in the (small car) boot and split it over a few weeks’ regular waste collection.

    3. Paul Edwards
      May 4, 2022

      The booking system is a great improvement. Very little queuing and a guarantee that the site will be open and not closed for maintenance or waste removal. Keep it up RE3.

      1. Mickey Taking
        May 4, 2022

        what queue? oh. the one to take refuge in the little shed manned by a data processing expert?

    4. Everhopeful
      May 4, 2022

      +many
      No..I guess they are still trying to work out how to counter ā€œtake make disposeā€and to achieve the ā€œcircular economyā€. Lol. Lol. Lol.šŸ˜¹
      So thatā€™s the rubbish dump shut forever then! ( In effect).

    5. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 4, 2022

      There’s no doubt that many entities including private business did use covid19 to force their users to conform to systems which were money-savers for those businesses, such as ordering food and drink from a table via an app, various queuing and booking arrangements and so on.

      Yes, they all need to go.

    6. Lifelogic
      May 4, 2022

      +1

    7. MFD
      May 4, 2022

      Sea_Warrior thats why there is an increase in fly- tipping across our beautiful country side. The standard of intelligence of our local politicians and some of the Westminster ones too is very low! Hill walking these days, i always come across litter. Wales really is the worst by a long chalk.

      Sir John, I agree with most of you article but from experience as an Estate manager for the RN the direct employed labour are by far the better- a lot of contractors try to charge high rates for work, their attitude is that Purser has a deep purse. It was a constant fight to get value for money.

  14. Everhopeful
    May 4, 2022

    Bizarre residents parking systems in High Streets. Always unused and stop people accessing shops and hairdressers.
    Random parking on grass verges and pavementsā€¦ upkeep coming from council tax.
    Rubbish collection would be as nothing if packaging were controlled.
    Not to mention local shops ( destroyed by govts) which obviated the need for deliveries in masses of cardboard.
    This country has been reformed into a total shambles.

    1. Bloke
      May 4, 2022

      Folk who lived during the 1950s had scarcely any packaging to be collected. In those days ‘Dustmen’ took away dust: Ash from hearth fires.

      Even that could be used in the householder’s garden to improve the soil.

      A packaging tax would help solutions.

      1. Mickey Taking
        May 5, 2022

        ‘packaging’ to call it that joined the newspapers to light the coal fire.

        1. Bloke
          May 7, 2022

          Yes; often double-recycled after being used to wrap fish & chips.

  15. Fedupsoutherner
    May 4, 2022

    Miles of the A40 was at a standstill yesterday with temporary lights and 30mph speed limit imposed for road works. We saw nothing happening going to our venue or coming back.

    1. Mickey Taking
      May 5, 2022

      sounds normal for driving beyond Oxford!

  16. Roy Grainger
    May 4, 2022

    The Conservatives are getting a bit of extra support locally (big Labour majority) by coming out totally against the new cycle lane which has been built in the main street and is little used but is causing additional pollution from gridlocked vehicles stuck in a single-lane which has bus stops. They say if elected they will remove it. Of course nationally their policy is the exact opposite. Maybe a conclusion to be drawn there ?

  17. dixie
    May 4, 2022

    Wokingham – spent 100’s of millions on refurbishing their town centre while out in the sticks our roads remain damaged and they have pushed vast amounts of dormitory development and a migrant centre onto us with zero improvement of infrastructure. Not to mention they increased council tax despite significantly reduced services during the lockdown. And don’t get me started on the badly scheduled refuse collection or traffic management where the local school gets all consideration and residents zero.
    Perhaps there should be a windfall tax on the fully paid council executives …

    Considering I’d also like to give central government a boot up the arse over their non-delivery of Brexit, a non-viable energy and industrial strategy and not sticking up for our interests perhaps you can take a wild guess if I will be voting for the Conservatives in any elections at all let alone the locals.

  18. J Bush
    May 4, 2022

    I can give my local government its due, whilst the CT goes up every year, the increase is modest. That said, for a predominantly rural area the charge is rather high, especially given many of the amenities have been taken over by parish councils, rather than see a sports hall or library etc closed. They even recently tried to pass the responsibility of street lighting onto parish councils, by claiming it was footpath lighting offering a remuneration that would not cover the maintenance or replacement cost of said lighting. They also want to pass the responsibility of planning applications onto them. Damned cheek, given parish councillors are the only ones who don’t get paid, so many are already in full time employment elsewhere.

    Sadly, increasingly its priorities have become ‘woke’. More so in the last 2 years or so. I work for a parish council and forever receiving emails from its various employees about diversity, health and mental well being, covid, green and climate change garbage etc, but nothing about improving anything on the list you refer to. So it would appear they have not reduced the staff numbers, merely redeployed them to spout nonsense at the taxpayers expense.

    They no longer provide the phone numbers of departments, the only number available is the main reception, who do not transfer your call, but take the details to pass on, only for you to repeat it again when the relevant department eventually contacts you. Unless of course you want to give them money.

    Finally, it is worth noting these changes have come from the top, so the buck stops at No 10.

    1. J Bush
      May 4, 2022

      The above comment was submitted around 9am. 13 hrs later it is still waiting moderation. Sadly, this says more about you than it does about me.

      Reply Yes it says I am very busy.

      1. J Bush
        May 5, 2022

        Selectively busy, given other comments of a similar length have been submitted after mine and moderated before.

        But heyho, it is your site and you can choose what comments you want to publish late or not at all, as has been noted by others.

  19. Cortona
    May 4, 2022

    How refreshing to hear the notion that our vast taxes could be spent to improve our lives, a concept completely lost in media debateā€¦ I saw a headline that we are heading for Scandinavian level taxation without any decent public services which about summed it up for me. I would therefore usually agree we should let the private sector do more. However, I do see the case for council run sports facilities like pools as I donā€™t see the private sector filling that need so find a rare point of difference there Sir John and would welcome your explanation on that point.

  20. Brian Tomkinson
    May 4, 2022

    JR: “There should be a minimum standard of weekly collection”
    Is there a single local authority in the country that does this? The norm collection cycle seems to be every two weeks alternating with garden aand recycling waste. As for roads there seems to have been a concentrated attempt to reduce local road capacity. All part no doubt of the net zero scam.

    1. alan jutson
      May 4, 2022

      Brian

      I have to say in its favour, Wokingham still does weekly collections for recyclables and non recyclables, Garden waste though less often, hence why I use the RE3 Tip.

    2. hefner
      May 4, 2022

      In my part of Wokingham borough, three different collections for 1/ garbage, 2/ food stuff, and 3/ in a big green strong plastic bag for paper, cardboard, tins and some plastic types are carried out every week.
      This has been going on for some years now (3? 4? 5?) thanks to the creation of Re3, a joint recycling effort by Bracknell Forest, Wokingham and Reading borough councils. Re3 Ltd is a private entity working with FCC Environment to deal with waste management.
      Once or twice a year people get a leaflet detailing what is accepted in each category (and what is not accepted). For example, one still has to bring glass to various (Re3) glass banks within the area of these three boroughs as glass is not (yet?) accepted (very likely for safety reasons).

      In its 2021 survey the satisfaction rate was 98% (obviously of the people who took the time to answer, which might bias the result).
      I am not sure this justifies the overall council tax that I pay, but at least I am happy with that part of the services.

  21. Nottingham Lad Himself
    May 4, 2022

    Council Tax, as a means of raising revenues, was not imposed by councils but by central Tory government.

    It’s intrinsic problems and injustices are therefore attributable to the Tories who implemented it.

    1. Mickey Taking
      May 4, 2022

      I should have guessed.

    2. glen cullen
      May 4, 2022

      I agree, we need to reform how and why councils are funded

  22. wanderer
    May 4, 2022

    Voters are lazy in my area when it comes to assessing value for money from their Councils. At the Town level, a group of people ran as “the ***** party” at the last elections (I’ll keep it anonymous). They swept the board, as people are so fed up with the main political parties and don’t fully understand that those not running under a party label are true independents. Sadly, very good independent Councillors got washed away. The new crowd increased the Town Council part of the rates by 100%. Yes, doubled it. Not a murmur from the ratepayers, who promptly voted a member of this group onto the upper tier of local Councils. Meanwhile I haven’t seen any discernable improvement in my local area.

    This year the Town Council part of the tax has only gone up by a comparatively modest 8%.

    I dare say the voters will again be lazy, see the word “*****” and vote for it, without any inkling as to what they are voting for.

  23. Christine
    May 4, 2022

    I expect a lot of council tax money goes on wages and pensions. It certainly doesn’t go on services. My village of circa 600 houses, when I moved in, has had over 3000 new homes built in it in the last 10 years, giving the council a vast increase in income. No new facilities have been provided. Our library is run by volunteers and an old lady picks up the litter. The roads are a disgrace. We get no leisure facilities and little public transport yet pay the same amount as people living in large towns and cities. We see people in the cities and devolved countries getting bus passes at 60 whilst we don’t. Where is the levelling up?

    1. Fedupsoutherner
      May 4, 2022

      Christine. I agree. We have had a lot of new homes in our village but we don’t even have street lights. We weeded the roads ourselves but they are a mess again and me and my husband cleaned the bus shelter as you couldn’t see out of it for dirt.

      1. Mickey Taking
        May 5, 2022

        you have a bus shelter? amazing.

    2. No Longer Anonymous
      May 4, 2022

      Ditto here. I AM that litter picker.

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 5, 2022

      Excellent, NLA – we do that too.

      It’s interesting, that in some areas – like student land – when lots of people see us doing it, the amount of littering then actually falls dramatically, and we’ve had plenty of pleasant engagement with passers-by.

      However in others – I won’t bother to describe them – it perhaps even increases, maybe because that “they” clear it up.

      People are also more inclined to drop litter when they’re merely adding to the mess that’s already there.

  24. J Bush
    May 4, 2022

    “They provide a network of roads and paths free at the point of use as monopoly provider. There is too little talk about these.”

    For the first time in years I got lab and con election flyers through the letter box, both went straight into the bin. But I must admit a smile at the photo on the con one. The candidate had the grinning ‘cars are so 20th century’ MP standing next to him. Laughable given the area has very few bus routes outside its couple of towns. My nearest bus route is nearly 2 miles away and runs twice an hour and the nearest rail station is over 5 miles away!

    So my vote on Thursday will go to None of the above.

  25. Nigl
    May 4, 2022

    On a positive note I am happy with my council Rushmore. However the council tax has gone up a ridiculous amount especially from the zero added value Police Commissioner.

    Obviously Westminster looks to dump some costs on to them to save their own skin.

    The issue is that we have no levers and they have no incentive to improve efficiency. Some take pride in their low rate ethos but too many are caught up in worrying about road names and other left wing wokery.

    The only way to drive efficiency improvements is, as with the private sector, work with less money without cutting services .

    We need a performance league table based on outputs/council tax with a hit squad, no not thousands a day consultants, to review, like Ofsted the worst performers with improvement measures to be implemented.

    Can some services be amalgamated with other nearby authorities to benefit from economies of scale.

    Do their pension plans reflect what the private sector now offers? I expect not.

    Of course nothing will happen. With central government the inefficient wasteful mess it is in, there can be no chance of it reforming Local Authorities.

    Has anyone met local councillors? A hard driving business savvy group with a history of wealth generation, they are most certainly not.

  26. Bloke
    May 4, 2022

    Reducing uncontrolled over-population would solve or ease virtually all the problems described.

  27. Christine
    May 4, 2022

    The question should be asked about where the council tax money goes. Thirty years ago a top manager would earn around 30k a year now they earn high 6 figure salaries. Who authorised this massive increase? I have a second home in Spain where the annual council tax is less than one months UK tax, the services are far better and the public transport is very cheap. Something doesn’t add up.

  28. Dave Andrews
    May 4, 2022

    No mention of the money they spend on “adult services”. They also spend huge amounts on education (no problem with that).
    The amount they spend on people who haven’t put by in case they have to go into a care home, a service they are required to provide as a statutory duty, dwarfs the money they have left to spend on mending potholes. All they have money over for is the ring-fenced executive salaries.
    It doesn’t matter who you vote for, the council have to direct every penny towards statutory duties, and still not have enough.

  29. Nigl
    May 4, 2022

    And in other news we read that the government is going to reform Energy Performance Certificates to mark down those that do not have heat pumps.

    It continues to lie about the overall cost for most of us, even the basic 10k will be beyond most people who cannot even afford the egregious energy costs forced on us by this government.

    Stalinist statism on the day before the electorate will probably demonstrate their disgust at the Tories moving so far away from their alleged core values.

    ā€˜Youā€™ are out of control Sir JR.

  30. Michelle
    May 4, 2022

    Perhaps councils should be reminded what their job is.
    So many seem to be caught up in virtue signalling, wasting time, paper and money.
    The enforcing of multi-culturalism/diversity etc. while the roads are in a state of repair that would make a third world dictator blush.
    Ditto that for the state of many public toilets, which in a town near to me where I was working they cut from two to one as the town grows and that’s not safe to go into because of druggies and wino’s.
    Perhaps we could go back to proper on site attendants for public toilets and parks which might help keep things in better order reducing the need to ‘close for vandalism repairs’

    To be fair they also have to make things work to the backdrop of what is going on in national politics.
    It is the local councils who have the burden of finding all the extra room for the insistence of growing the population, the latter putting enormous strain on all the services provided.

  31. ChrisS
    May 4, 2022

    Nothing much appears to have changed in local government in the last 50 years.

    Six months ago all the pavements in our area of Dorset were resurfaced. Not properly : the bumps and dips caused by tree roots were not eliminated, just covered over. At least it was a nice, overall dark grey colour.

    In the last month the same pavements have all been dug up in numerous places in front of every house for the purpose of laying a new gas main ! It now looks like a patchwork quilt. The gas main renewal must have been in the planning for at least a year so why on earth was the pavement replacement not delayed until afterwards ?

  32. Denis Cooper
    May 4, 2022

    Meanwhile it’s eurofederalist business as usual on the continent:

    “EU should drop unanimity in foreign policy, Italian PM says”

    “Parliament demands pan-EU candidates and vote”

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 4, 2022

      Twitch, curtains, twitch…

      1. No Longer Anonymous
        May 4, 2022

        Actually a Doctor in such matters, NLH.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          May 5, 2022

          A verb in your post might give it meaning, NLA.

          1. Mickey Taking
            May 5, 2022

            although we can understand the point you make, however weak, the observation at best is pretty pathetic. – oh and in your case – quite repetitive.

  33. Richard1
    May 4, 2022

    Itā€™s very simple. At the margin you get a better service and a lower council tax from Conservative councils. Vote anything else – Labour, LibDem, green, separatist etc – and you pay more for a worse service. So vote Conservative.

    1. Mark B
      May 5, 2022

      Do you know we are paying more tax than ever ? All this and more under a Tory government. And it is people like you who keep voting for the same dross that drives this.

  34. Everhopeful
    May 4, 2022

    Plusā€¦not really on topic.
    But WHY is tree felling shredding allowed on the Highway?
    Why is council tax subsidising private business.
    Shredding should be done in a business yard.

  35. glen cullen
    May 4, 2022

    Why is it then SirJ that every party leaflet Iā€™ve received this past week has the environment and climate change front & centreā€¦.we want our pot holes fixed, police on the street and our Tory councillors want to ban cars and use taxpayers money to build EV charging stations

    1. Brian Tomkinson
      May 4, 2022

      Glen,
      Agreed. Are there any polticians either local or national who even care what people want? They want our votes only to govern in the interests of others.

  36. agricola
    May 4, 2022

    One aspect of council spending I totally disagree with is their pension provision. Give or take a little this is about 20% of their tax take on the communities they serve. Why I ask cannot their employees pay for their own pensions just like the self employed and many of the employed in the private sector. That 20% would fill many potholes and improve the service that local government theoretically provides. I see no reason for local government employees to be cosseted in this way.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      May 4, 2022

      The Right are such pushovers for the Politics Of Envy aren’t they?

      You’re simply arguing for a 20% pay cut for all council employees.

      1. agricola
        May 5, 2022

        So you empty bins in Nottingham, I wondered where all that bile originated.

      2. Mickey Taking
        May 5, 2022

        curious…so when your ilk go on about capitalist fortunes being made – it is not about Politics Of Envy?

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          May 6, 2022

          As Harry Redknapp once said, you can only eat three meals a day and sleep in one bed at a time, so what is the matter with these [greedy] people?

          I do not want any more money than I have, so I’m not envious.

          I am, however, appalled at some people’s greed and what they are only too happy to inflict upon their employees to satisfy it.

  37. peter
    May 4, 2022

    In Wokingham we seem to have a refuse dispersal system where bags are damaged and the contents strewn down banks and in roads! Also just before the end of March Wokingham was treated to repainting of fences and posts along the roads by contractors from Grimsby! This is the fault of the antiquated finance schemes run by WBC where if money is not spent in the financial year it is lost and also taken from next year. I do not mind the money being spent this way rather than lost, but a bit of planning would not go amiss. Also the pot hole on the road right outside my house has now had a neat paint circle around it for a month. And still the rates rise for the “work”
    at home brigade.

    1. Mickey Taking
      May 4, 2022

      they should have left a date of painting alongside it !

    2. glen cullen
      May 4, 2022

      When paint is circled around a pot hole, an excel spreadsheet is updated with a smiley face, a little tick in the box and someone gets a bonusā€¦.mission accomplished for 6 months

      1. Mickey Taking
        May 5, 2022

        prior to the hole being circled it has to pass a test on how deep the pothole is. I’ve yet to witness it happening, but I imagine it would draw crowds.

    3. hefner
      May 4, 2022

      Part of the problem is likely linked to people putting their garbage (blue) bag not on the morning of the collection day but the night before and in some cases 24 or even 48 hours earlier.
      Given the number of foxes going around at night it is not surprising that the bags are torn out and the content spilled around. We had that problem around where I live and after some posters had been put encouraging people to keep their bags inside (or in their garden) till the morning of collection day, the situation although not perfect has improved enormously.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        May 5, 2022

        Also putting dirty, food-contaminated items in the recycling bags as happens in many places.

      2. Mickey Taking
        May 5, 2022

        and when the collection time is too early – what happens?

  38. The Prangwizard
    May 4, 2022

    Many years ago – I don’t know who ran this part of Oxfordshire – a good refuse collection system was introduced. We have food collected weekly, plus recycling and waste, collected alternatively fortnightly. We have a very useful reference disc to look up what goes where.

    And some roads have been getting better repairs, stretches have been fixed rather than just potholes, but where potholes are done it is still a ripoff through very poor work.

    On the negative side recent central gov green authoritarian ideology attempted to impose a 1 metre wide coned cycling scheme for children to get to school, when most walk from within the village or are brought in by car from around. It was a stupid idea, dangerous and narrowed the road so it would have prevented the passage of lorries. This along with attempting imposing 20mph was rejected by the Parish council after listening to our objections.

    The most dangerous problem in the country is Boris and his insane green fanaticism. He clearly has no idea how detached from reality he is and cannot see the effect of his posturing. He just likes talking but doesn’t want to be bothered with the follow up.

  39. No Longer Anonymous
    May 4, 2022

    Open Top Recycling means they don’t have to collect most of the refuse anyway. It all ends up in the rivers and out to sea making the idea of OTR more environmentally damaging than not doing it at all.

    Political posturing is what a lot of councils are about.

  40. John Miller
    May 4, 2022

    Local authorities seem infected with Carrie’s green crap. The car is the enemy. A great help to high street shopkeepers?

    1. glen cullen
      May 4, 2022

      100% true

  41. No Longer Anonymous
    May 4, 2022

    I sense that our global policies are being dictated by local elections. Hence we’re playing nuclear poker with Putin.

    Rwanda. Housing association homes for sale… it’s not very often a working couple gets a housing association home but all these things are a con to satisfy the 24hr news cycle coming up to an election from a government that has been the most socialist we’ve ever had.

  42. Paul Cuthbertson
    May 4, 2022

    Your government and your local authority do not care about you. You are irrelevant. You witness and suffer the total disregard these agencies have for you on a daily basis. Nothing will change until the whole rotten system is changed however change is coming.
    Nothing can stop what is coming, Nothing.

  43. a-tracy
    May 4, 2022

    The councils do so much that people often donā€™t realise what they are funding from your rates, they just think they do potholes and sub-contract out the bins and some school overseeing.

    Our neighbouring council was in the paper for spending a quarter of a million pounds per week just getting children to school. Does this money come to them from central government or is it local ratepayers that pay this? If this is for special needs children donā€™t their parents get mobility payments and cars for this or to pay for taxis themselves? Why is just one child per vehicle collected often with a driver and carer, couldnā€™t this be logistically improved more cost effectively?

    I saw a tweet about Suzannaā€™s Boris gotcha moment with 77 year old Elsie, thank goodness Iā€™m at work and I donā€™t watch this program. Why didnā€™t Boris just ask Suzanna for more details to look into it even just which council area does Elsie live in Suzanna?

    Local Councils pay for activities and clubs locally if they are not the right clubs then they should be held to account what % of the retired people are they catering for in her local area? Local councils pay for libraries that Elsie could use rather than sit on a bus these public buildings are all heated have staff on hand and activities, books, newspapers, meeting groups etc. Well run ones are brilliant. Age concern locally could give her free assistance or the citizens advice bureau they are part funded by local councils.

    What sort of council houses are band F everyone I know in council properties are bands B and C for 3 bed homes. Is the home provided on housing benefit or did she buy it? Isnā€™t there a suitable retirement home, bungalow, nice new council retirement complex that Elsie could live in to reduce her massive bills (Ā£17 to Ā£89 per month) is a massive change she needs someone to help her like age concern, my aunt and uncle couldnā€™t afford their 3 bed semi after they retired so they downsized into a one bed flat (I am disgusted how much some of the management charges are each year in these on top of council tax – and is often why retired people canā€™t move into them). I canā€™t stand the thought that people think riding around on a bus all day is their only option when so much money is spent on local services that they may not be aware of. Susanna should follow up her compassion and do a week in the life of Elsie to see if she can help. Councils really do need to think about suitable retirement three storey apartments with lifts owned by the Council to help people like Elsie to belong in her community, cut her bills, and keep her local, healthy and able to cover her bills.

  44. Original Richard
    May 4, 2022

    Whilst it is absolutely correct that voters should using their democratic rights and be voting in their local elections for the councillors they feel should be running the local services they are more likely to be voting on national issues as this is the only way they feel they can influence the national debate and policies.

    The problem is that for the large numbers of people who do not believe we should be saving the planet by reducing our 1% contribution to global CO2 emissions through the economy crippling Net Zero Strategy and/or by opening our borders to all economic, but not cultural, migrants who pay people smugglers to land them in the UK, there is simply no party for whom they can vote.

    This is not democracy.

    1. glen cullen
      May 4, 2022

      Wouldnā€™t it be great if all councillors where local and independent, and councils free from political party pressure and influence
      My councillors no longer have the desire to help the local community; they all have an ambition to become an MPā€¦its just a transition to the gravy train

  45. Sea_Warrior
    May 4, 2022

    O/T, I see that the EU is looking to increase military support to EU-aspirant Moldova. Good. I trust that we will keep well out of the particular problem.

  46. Pauline Baxter
    May 4, 2022

    Reading all those complaints about other people’s Councils has made me realise that High Peak Borough Council are relatively good.
    They are Labour controlled.
    My Conservative MP urged me to vote to change that to Conservative control!
    On the other hand the County Council are Conservative controlled and judging from the blurb that comes through the letter box, it is them that waste money on stuff that they should not be doing.
    Just as well there is no election for me to worry about this time I suppose.
    It is no good Sir John, whatever you say, the fact is that voters are so pig sick of your Party since 2019, they are going to protest in any way they can.

  47. Fedupsoutherner
    May 4, 2022

    Off topic. Anyone else notice how the plug was pulled on Farage on GB NEWS this evening while reporting on the corruption of the Biden family? The picture abd sound miraculously came back when Farage was finished. .

    1. graham1946
      May 5, 2022

      Yes, and Steyn didn’t even mention it. Waiting to see if Farage gets a chance to tell us what happened tonight. More likely he’ll get banned like he did from LBC (Leftwing British Conversation).

  48. glen cullen
    May 4, 2022

    I betcha Boris has an emergency meeting abroad from Friday

  49. APL
    May 5, 2022

    Voted today. Any party but the rotten governing Tory party.

Comments are closed.