Council Tax

[Caran]

Our Council are boasting that they have frozen council tax. They have conveniently ignored the fact they have stopped the free garden waste collection. We have to sign up to £26 per year for alternate weeks collection.
They are providing us with new wheely bins as the bin collection has now changed from each week to alternate weeks. We have been given food caddies (2) one for inside and a larger one for outside decantering, this will be collected weekly.
We have always had free parking in the Forest, now they are introducing charges throughout except at the council offices where staff park for free.
Is it any wonder everyone is so demoralised here. Our MP is a waste of space.
When we had the outcry about selling off the forest he voted not to save it, he is so out of here next election. Sorry Rant over!!

[stokemaveric]

they put our council tax up by £30.00 a year...and they are shutting libraries,care homes childrens centres and anything else that will save them money...its a disgrace...my council tax bill is over a grand a year...its legalised robbery

[Buenchico]

Council services aren't funded solely from local taxes. Funding from central government contributes to a substantial part of the bills. However successive governments have (rather than raising income tax or VAT, for example) found much of that money from simply borrowing it. That's why we're in a financial mess and why the Government has substantially cut what it pays to local councils. (That's not a party political view. Even Labour accepts that the cuts are necessary; it's only the speed of introducing them that they argue about).

In the UK most people's income (after the tax-free allowance) is taxed at 31%. (i.e. 20% Income Tax plus 11% National Insurance). Scandinavian countries get their books to balance (and provide good quality services for their citizens) by taxing income at around 50%. So, from a purely financial viewpoint, the answer to our problems is simple: double Income Tax - but who would vote for it?

[hc4361]

We haven't had free parking round here for years. Many councils have been doing fortnightly waste collection for years.
I have to pay the council £12 for each bulk collection - one mattress or one fridge, for example.

Stop moaning! Seems to me you've been having it good and are now starting to catch up with the rest of the nation. Yes, my council tax is well over £1k too.

[slinkycat]

Always interesting to hear how other councils organise the collections, you'd have thought by now, after years of various wheelie bins, that they would have between them worked out which is most cost effective and still acceptable to residents!
Our garden and food waste go in the same bin with a fortnightly collection, ok in cooler weather but in the summer I put the food in the alternate bin.

[DaisyNonna]

£12 for a bulk collection? More than double that here. And I would have to get it down a flight of stairs myself!

[slinkycat]

Blimey we have large collections reasonably cheap here then, £7 per item, though it does have to be in the front garden ready.

[Caran]

Our Council tax is £1181 per annum. Surely this is enough without all the extras.

[ELVIS68]

My council tax is over £2000 per year, I live in a small village and we get a collection each week, one week for household the next for recycling, we get the grass cut every few months and that's about it

[slinkycat]

Depends which band you are in Carandrog, ours is around £1600 for band c.

[Caran]

We are in a band B. I do not understand the banding at all. Don't get me wrong, we are very grateful to have a low banding. But we have a detached 2 bedroom home built circa 2002. Glad for the decision to put us in a (B) rating.
But still object to everything going on locally.

[Buenchico]

Your Council Tax band is based upon the value of your house in 1991 (England) or 2003 (Wales).

See 'Valuation Bands' here:
http://www.direct.gov...ouncilTax/DG_10037383

[trt]

'' get the grass cut every few months and that's about it ''!

Is that your own garden Elvis?

[DaisyNonna]

B band 1930s built 2 bedroom flat. £1179.43 annual council tax. Garden refuse extra.

[ELVIS68]

Wish it was trt but sadly not, just the grass verges.

Chico, although they say based on the value of the property in that year they go on the average and not the actual property, mine should be a band lower but the council will not lower mine unless I can prove it and estate agents in my area do not keep records that far back and therefore they won't lower mine even though the online calculator proves this

[DaisyNonna]

Carandog. Over 80 quid a year for garden waste bin.
Shredded paper cannot be recycled. Why? We keep being told to shred personal papers but then they cannot be disposed in a green way. I tend to dispose of mine shredded and doused in curry sauce in the refuse bin.

[ummmm]

Our council switched back to weekly collections last year. Everything goes out on a Saturday.

[starone]

I'm having the same problem with shredded paper daisy. I have a huge bag full of it. I thought about burning it which i could have done without shredding it. I put some in my compost bin because it will eventually biodegrade, but it takes a very long time and there is a limit to how much the compost bin will hold. Burning it pollutes the atmosphere so I don't really want to do that. I rang the recycling office and they told me to take it to the local tip. I haven't got a car and no way of getting there. Honestly!!! If anyone has any ideas about this I shall be very grateful. In the meantime I am standing here with a huge black bag full of bits of paper.

[ummmm]

If it's shredded letters etc...put it in a bucket of hot water and let it soak. Squeeze it out and goes to almost nothing.

[tamborine]

C'mon, wouldn't you want to make up your losses any which way ?

http://news.bbc.co.uk..._politics/7659783.stm

[emmie]

our council seems to be selling off anything that isn't nailed down.
To cap it all the bstards are flogging the annexe to the town hall, and building themselves a brand new office block. The proposal if it goes ahead is to replace it with a massive tower block. All the while bins overflow, the recycling bins are a joke. Many of our libraries are now being run by volunteers, so out of the councils control, and a whole host of other cost cutting measures.