suggestions regarding council cuts Options

[Cognosco]

Oh dear oh deary me! Letting the plebs get involved with council business?
Far too dangerous where will it all end?
Come on User get posting to counteract these ridiculous ideas!
Petra will need tranquilizers if this is allowed, it needs a very high pay grade indeed, and many cups of coffee at very many meetings attended by highly skilled and responsible councillors and officers to brainstorm this problem of funding shortage.
No the plebs must be told it is far too complicated for the likes of them to try and meddle with this serious business of councilling!

http://www.newburytoday.co.uk/news/home/17...ternatives.html

[spartacus]

"Sell gas and electricity to make profits for the council"... eh? If that list of 30 suggestions is what they've come up with then good luck..... "Hold a referendum to see if people want to pay more council tax to retain services" NOBODY wants to pay MORE

[Cognosco]

"Sell gas and electricity to make profits for the council"... eh? If that list of 30 suggestions is what they've come up with then good luck..... "Hold a referendum to see if people want to pay more council tax to retain services" NOBODY wants to pay MORE

Well I assume as services are being cut then our precept will reduce surely?

[Simon Kirby]

"Sell gas and electricity to make profits for the council"... eh? If that list of 30 suggestions is what they've come up with then good luck..... "Hold a referendum to see if people want to pay more council tax to retain services" NOBODY wants to pay MORE

The selling gas option was bizarre, but a referrendum on the option of paying more tax or a selection of which services people actually want is a decent enough idea, and there are plenty of people who really do want a full range of public services and expect to pay for them, though I condede that it's likely to create a tyranny of the majority with more people than not choosing to keep their money.

[On the edge]

There were other options sent in and not published, such as abolishing the town / parish councils, significantly reducing the number of Councillors, make the management structure flatter.

[On the edge]

"Sell gas and electricity to make profits for the council"... eh? If that list of 30 suggestions is what they've come up with then good luck..... "Hold a referendum to see if people want to pay more council tax to retain services" NOBODY wants to pay MORE

Yes, pretty dumb, but actually returning pre 1945 municipal arrangements would actually bring independent profit streams and provide a substantial base of productive work. That would also be an impetus for innovative and dynamic management. Not just electricity and gas, but telecoms, broadband, public transport, (dare I say) housing etc.

I used to be able to agree with you that nobody wants to pay more, but after what's been happening, more and more would do just that, if asked.

[spartacus]

I used to be able to agree with you that nobody wants to pay more, but after what's been happening, more and more would do just that, if asked.

I'm not so sure the majority are actually prepared to be that charitable and would rather cherry pick what they pay for. If someone asked me if I wanted to be a philanthropist I'd decline the offer to help paying to bus kids to school who lived within walking distance for instance. It turns out that I'm not that altruistic and as I haven't used the library for years I'd cross that one off too....

[spartacus]

The problem is, we're going to be made to pay more for less anyway, as services are being removed yet council tax is going up. Asking if we'd be willing to pay a little more on top to help keep some of those services is going to be difficult to manage I suspect.

There's no doubt many of us are compassionate enough to understand why some of the social support for the disabled should be retained. I wouldn't however support chipping in if that money was continuing to subsidise buses to outlying villages. That's just giving money to bus companies to help them stay profitable.

[je suis Charlie]

I'd pay £50.00 a year for a library card and consider it good value.

[Andy Capp]

My concern, although I have only used it once decades ago is CAB. Paradoxically, I would imagine there will be greater need for it now than before.

[On the edge]

I'm not so sure the majority are actually prepared to be that charitable and would rather cherry pick what they pay for. If someone asked me if I wanted to be a philanthropist I'd decline the offer to help paying to bus kids to school who lived within walking distance for instance. It turns out that I'm not that altruistic and as I haven't used the library for years I'd cross that one off too....

You are quite right, but arguably that's not a refusal, just a different funding model. I'd also argue that the NHS has exactly the same dilemma; and some are quite willing to pay extra for certain services. The debate then turns to what really are the 'essential services'? Schools are a case in point; I would be willing, and indeed did, pay additional transport costs to send my off spring to the school of choice. What this also opens up is real political difference at local level; real choice.

[Simon Kirby]

There were other options sent in and not published, such as abolishing the town / parish councils, significantly reducing the number of Councillors, make the management structure flatter.

Things are not always as they seem. A protest against cuts is not always a protest against cuts, sometimes it's and opportunity for one aspiring faction of local-government parasites to bad-mouth another faction of parasites in the hope of displacing them - you'll get some mild criticism of the "cuts are bad" kind, but they're never going to suggest anything as radical as culling the town council or even anything as obvious as dropping the mayor, losing the market, self-managing the allotments, and abandoning the town hall, not if their intentions are self-serving and parasitic at any rate, because these for them are the prize, it's this empire of busy-work and the prestige of managing it that all these parasites crave. It's quite the litmus test for it really.

[Simon Kirby]

I don't want to be taxed to pay for fox-furred robes, chains of office, and assorted othet ceremonial niff-naff and flummary. I don't object to being taxed, but I would like that £100k that is currently spent on the Mayor and other Town Council cetemonial civic flummery to be spent on something more deserving like libraries and social services.

Likewise that £100k that keeps the Town Council in the Town Hall. It's just a parish council, so let them manage the parks from an office in a community hall and spend that money on something more deserving.

Likewise allotments. If it didn't come with a fight the town's allotmenteers would gladly manage their own service, so another £50k to be spent on something more deserving.

Ditto the market. There are other shops, we don't need our Town Council spending £10k on this moribund performance. Spend the money on essential services.

When it comes down to it half of the Town Council's £1,000,000 precept is spent on vanity projects and busy work. It's not that painful being taxed for it, but it should be spent on public services.

[TallDarkAndHands...]

A local lottery with a twist is the answer.

The loser forfeits house and all assets.
Only those with a net worth of £1 million plus are entered.

Will bring down house prices and only one poor bugger loses out.

[Turin Machine]

Its getting so bad I almost feel like cancelling the order for the new Bently! Hmm, may just cut down on the Moet for a teensy bit instead. There! I feel better already, doing my bit you know? Doing my bit.

[On the edge]

Things are not always as they seem. A protest against cuts is not always a protest against cuts, sometimes it's and opportunity for one aspiring faction of local-government parasites to bad-mouth another faction of parasites in the hope of displacing them - you'll get some mild criticism of the "cuts are bad" kind, but they're never going to suggest anything as radical as culling the town council or even anything as obvious as dropping the mayor, losing the market, self-managing the allotments, and abandoning the town hall, not if their intentions are self-serving and parasitic at any rate, because these for them are the prize, it's this empire of busy-work and the prestige of managing it that all these parasites crave. It's quite the litmus test for it really.

Yes, I think you are absolutely right.

The malaise is institutionalised. Let's look back, when Berkshire was abolished, we still retained the ceremonial flummery. So we now have a Constitutional Monarch represented by a Ceremonial Lord Lieutenant for a non existent County, to whom our Ceremonial Mayor, wearing his non historic chain pays homage on behalf of a powerless Parish Council, who work from a building deemed not fit for purpose by other local government officers.

....and Britian has the skills and knowledge to exist on its own!

[je suis Charlie]

Its getting so bad I almost feel like cancelling the order for the new Bently! Hmm, may just cut down on the Moet for a teensy bit instead. There! I feel better already, doing my bit you know? Doing my bit.

Channelling the spirit of Petra are you?

[je suis Charlie]

Yes, I think you are absolutely right.

The malaise is institutionalised. Let's look back, when Berkshire was abolished, we still retained the ceremonial flummery. So we now have a Constitutional Monarch represented by a Ceremonial Lord Lieutenant for a non existent County, to whom our Ceremonial Mayor, wearing his non historic chain pays homage on behalf of a powerless Parish Council, who work from a building deemed not fit for purpose by other local government officers.

....and Britian has the skills and knowledge to exist on its own!

To be fair, we do get another flagpole. I mean, come on.

[Cognosco]

To be fair, we do get another flagpole. I mean, come on.

Well a flagpole is important you know? Only trouble is the last time I walked through the market place I was the only one there! Apparently the market place is a very underused part of town on most days so really not a good place to have a flagpole anyway?

I think a better site for the flagpoles would be on the bridge over the Kennet on the A339 more people would see it and it would give people stuck in the traffic something to distract them.

[On the edge]

To be fair, we do get another flagpole. I mean, come on.

Yeah! Ironically, just so they can run up their home made just pretend flag when they have to fly a real one.