Still no Newbury tip pass yet Options

[Andy Capp]

Great, still no pass for The tip! Any idea why this dumb scheme wasn't delayed?

[On the edge]

Got mine last week. Very sparkly! But it seems to me that the costs involved in production and distribution of said passes, plus the cost to monitor their use will surely obviate any cost savings?

Well, speculate to accumulate. This is a very good test for differential access, so that service delivery is fair to us all. Probably the reasoning behind the fences round the kids area in Victoria Park and the idea of Wharf toilet charging. If you don't have your card, you either pay or you don't get in. Done properly, NTC customers would get a discount by showing their card when using the market. Greenham Parish will welcome this, because non Greenies will have to pay their way when the Control Tower opens. Why should we pay for others? It's only a few Hants residents getting upset; but if they think about it, they have to go to Basingstoke to change their library books or visit a museum.

[Andy Capp]

Well, speculate to accumulate. This is a very good test for differential access, so that service delivery is fair to us all. Probably the reasoning behind the fences round the kids area in Victoria Park and the idea of Wharf toilet charging. If you don't have your card, you either pay or you don't get in. Done properly, NTC customers would get a discount by showing their card when using the market. Greenham Parish will welcome this, because non Greenies will have to pay their way when the Control Tower opens. Why should we pay for others? It's only a few Hants residents getting upset; but if they think about it, they have to go to Basingstoke to change their library books or visit a museum.

I presume devolving waste disposal management this way adds cost to the country's tax payer.

[On the edge]

I presume devolving waste disposal management this way adds cost to the country's tax payer.

And why not? We want public services, we have to pay for them. After all, as I found recently, car parking charges are a bit cheaper in Basingstoke. These Hants. people can't have it both ways. We could, of course, have waste management run centrally; but that would inevitably mean a loss of admin jobs in the area, carrying on as we are now at least means we are maintaining, indeed even increasing, local employment.

As you've noticed, there has been some delay in getting the passes issued. However, given that the decision was only taken very recently; that any have been issued at all is a tribute to the hard work and effort by the administration. Resource is cut to the bone anyway because of the effect of last year's budget. For the Councillors and their senior advisers, it must have been a very difficult decision to make; not one we'd have much hope of solving.

And that's probably why we vote the same people into office every time we have a chance. Now perhaps we can concentrate our minds on a very serious issue; replenishment of grit bins, which needs to be done before Winter strikes; if it isn't, no one gets to the dump, pass or not.