Tory DOOM: Kent

[SueEllen]

Our local council (actually not terrible) is always saying they have no money for police, street cleaning and so on - but leave some rubbish in your back yard while renovating your kitchen and within days you'll get an enforcement notice to sort it out. No bobbies on the beat but people are patrolling your back lane.

It's called curtain twitchers otherwise known as neighbours.

[Paddy]

You should campaign for them to save money and not do it. Do you live somewhere really filthy?!

No spotless high end market.

[Protagoras]

You should campaign for them to save money and not do it. Do you live somewhere really filthy?!

This touches questions about modern work. There will always be some people, who for various reasons do not seek, or are unable to access higher skilled work.

Certain people undertake work which has a social good, but which may be unnecessary or could be automated, or which others consider demeaning.

There is a perspective that providing 'lower level' work for people is a social good. It helps people integrate, feel valued and contribute to society. Some people take pride in having cleaned the street or tended the municipal garden.

Where I live the streets are cleaned every morning by men who do a great job. I value it, but still think my council tax is too high and that a local income tax would be fairer.

[d000hg]

Our street and pavement is cleaned every morning at 5.30am seven days a week. It was Ok when they used a man and brush however, they now use a machine and it ends up brushing the leaves on the pavement towards the buildings this is then followed by another machine that sweeps the road and messes up the pavement.

You should campaign for them to save money and not do it. Do you live somewhere really filthy?!

[Protagoras]

From my observations of a council on the other side of London ...
- many, but not enough, dedicated relatively low paid staff. Working under a lot of pressure.
- top level management knows the problems, wants change, keen to head in the right direction
- middle layers of uncertain value; the natural habitat of the long serving, overpaid luxury pension brigade

Rather like the private sector in many ways ... but with lower staff turnover.

[Paddy]

Our local council (actually not terrible) is always saying they have no money for police, street cleaning and so on - but leave some rubbish in your back yard while renovating your kitchen and within days you'll get an enforcement notice to sort it out. No bobbies on the beat but people are patrolling your back lane.

Our street and pavement is cleaned every morning at 5.30am seven days a week. It was Ok when they used a man and brush however, they now use a machine and it ends up brushing the leaves on the pavement towards the buildings this is then followed by another machine that sweeps the road and messes up the pavement.

[d000hg]

Our local council (actually not terrible) is always saying they have no money for police, street cleaning and so on - but leave some rubbish in your back yard while renovating your kitchen and within days you'll get an enforcement notice to sort it out. No bobbies on the beat but people are patrolling your back lane.

[vetran]

HCC are awash with funds but they are spent on prestige projects, extravagant headquarters and over the top salaries for management. Money is wasted on endless meetings using high-end technology with six-feet-wide high resolution screens which are left on 24/7 and visible from the road. Potholes in the road are not fixed for years on end but millions are spent on cycle lanes the length of 100ft that no-one uses. If the council spend £100, they will also spend £10,000 to make a study about it.

kerching for consultants

[Paddy]

HCC are awash with funds but they are spent on prestige projects, extravagant headquarters and over the top salaries for management. Money is wasted on endless meetings using high-end technology with six-feet-wide high resolution screens which are left on 24/7 and visible from the road. Potholes in the road are not fixed for years on end but millions are spent on cycle lanes the length of 100ft that no-one uses. If the council spend £100, they will also spend £10,000 to make a study about it.

[vetran]

Local council down south (so a wealthy location): redid some old mansion to have as new posh offices, endless amounts of £££ spent. Their head is on £150k+ or so. But also are slashing social services like support for autistic children and parents left, right and centre and the workers who are delivering that support are on smth like £1500 a month. Win - win.

Slough = Labour.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-englan...shire-61617295

https://www.sloughobserver.co.uk/new...ed-bankruptcy/

https://www.theguardian.com/society/...ands-of-assets

A few people round here are quite miffed, maybe we will get a donkey with a blue rosette next. Cheap council houses to come though.

[dsc]

Local council down south (so a wealthy location): redid some old mansion to have as new posh offices, endless amounts of £££ spent. Their head is on £150k+ or so. But also are slashing social services like support for autistic children and parents left, right and centre and the workers who are delivering that support are on smth like £1500 a month. Win - win.

[Protagoras]

- Windfall tax on house price rise profits above inflation would help. Baseline, of say, 1998? Payable on sale or transfer between persons, companies or trusts.

[AtW]

"Two Tory-run councils warn PM of possible bankruptcy

Leaders of Kent and Hampshire county councils say even ‘drastic cuts’ to services will not be enough

Two of England’s largest Tory-run local authorities have warned the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, that they will be forced to declare bankruptcy within the next few months because of the unprecedented financial crisis enveloping both councils.

The leaders of Kent and Hampshire county councils said even “drastic cuts” to current services would not be enough to patch up the huge holes in their budgets created by soaring inflation and rising pressures in adult and children’s social care.

In a strongly worded joint letter to Sunak, Kent leader, Roger Gough, and Hampshire leader, Rob Humby, said while they recognised the difficult national economic circumstances, “we cannot sit by and let two great counties sleepwalk into a financial disaster”.

Ministers effectively had a choice, the letter said: to fund councils properly or change the law to remove the “outdated and under-resourced” legal obligation on town halls to provide services such as libraries and home-to-school transport.

Both councils faced budget deficits over the next few years “of a scale that has never been seen before”, they said, and unless ministers stepped in with emergency help and a long-term funding plan, they would be “likely to be considering section 114 [effective bankruptcy] notices in the next year or so”.

The letter said: “The problem is simple: the additional money that we can raise from council tax and business rates barely covers the normal inflationary pressures that we face each year. This leaves significant growth, particularly in adults’ and children’s social care, totally unfunded."

https://www.theguardian.com/society/...ble-bankruptcy

Rishi will create new Local Totally-Not-Income Tax for them...