Council Tax

[ShakenNstirred]

My, Mum is terrified about her bins, she literally thinks the council will come round and forcibly evict her if her bins are not back within house boundaries right after the bin men have been. I ask her "What about people who work, who can't have the bin in until they are home?"

I work nights
I put my bin out at about 6 am when I get home and don't get it in till about 5-6 pm, they empty it before 12 pm and as you say what about those that aren't in till late.
she needs to stop worrying

 

[Goberpiles316]

I was not going to wade into this as I work in waste and for a local authority but I have just received my bill: £1321 broken down as follows

County Council - waste disposal, Schools, library. roads, lights, grass cutting - £1,032
District Council - Waste collection, street cleansing, Parks, leisure, Flooding, beaches, toilets, pest control - £143
Parish Council - One park - £19.78
Police - £125

Now given what I get for my money, two kids at school everyday, use of the library bus weekly, street lights, roads, waste collected weekly, recycling every two weeks, my street cleaned, clean beaches, 30 public toilets, Police if required, use of Parks etc

Then their is the stuff I don't need but I pay for Council housing, community work, health and wellbeing etc

Waste is so low cost its crazy, for example we pay the contractor £20 per day per toilet block, that includes opening, closing and three visits to clean or more if required!

When you complain about your neighbour leaving bins out or having a messy garden you ring the Council, if you find fly tipping you ring the Council it gets sorted out. I do not want to have to worry about additional bills, I think the cost per household for waste collection including recycling is £48/year that's for 78 collections, so 0.66p a collection.

I pay more then this a year for every other service I receive, most of us are paying at least £10 a month for a phone line we only ever use for broadband!

People need to get a grip things are not free, are Councils great... NO of course not, most of the time is because we do things we think (like) to do instead of concentrating on what the public actually need!

Move to a pay as you go system on waste and see how many of your neighbours start putting waste in your bin, in your road, in your garden and what will you do??? Your be right on the phone to the Council complaining, people need to get a grip of reality and notice that things cost, I don't want the hassle of arranging waste collections, pot holes being filled and cutting the grass on verges.

 

[Spook187]

People need to get a grip things are not free,

Who ever said it was, we already pay a fortune in income tax, i think that should justify itself.

 

[Goberpiles316]

I agree we are overtaxed, but to not have to pay Council Tax central government would need to provide every Council with all the funds to carry out all the necessary services they force us to provide or push each Council to operate as a business and milk the income from car parks, waste, leisure, parks and toilets etc which isn't going to happen.

 

[Bongman]

I dont think the OP remembers the Poll Tax riots 24 years ago....

 

[Diagro]

I think someone did, but from another angle...they were being fined for leaving their empty wheelie bin on the street, they said it wasn't theirs it belonged to the local authority so was their responsibility. Afaik it was ruled that the wheelie bin was the householders property (supplied FOC by the local authority) and therefore their responsibility. It depends on whether the Council stipulate ownership or not. In any case the council are effectively dictating what you can and cannot do with the bin they supply and are establishing a set of arbitrary rules on how and when you can put out your rubbish for collection, going do far as to stipulate exactly where a bin should be placed, and when..within often narrow margins. Equally the requirements to sort waste are dictated, not by the WMF, EFW and MBT plants the local authority use, but by the councils decision to alternate weeks when each bin/box is collected...they did this to cut jobs, collections and vehicles (they are cutting a further 4 vehicles and 12 jobs in April and changing the collections again in Sept with a further 21 jobs cut).

It also goes to something you said earlier about the law...local byelaws are set by the council, the requirement for bins to be out in a small window was bought in by the council...they were not forced to do it by someone else as you suggested.

Hmm
The council here charged me £25 for our bins each, and a replacement would be £15.
Three Bins, One Black for General waste, One with a blue lid for Bottles and paper and a green one for garden crap.

I have never been asked to move my bins, They all sit at the end of my drive in a row right next to the path.

Although an oldish chap did mention that i am supposed to put them in the garden when not collection day, and i simply said that its just easy to leave them where they get collected from.

 

[LOAM]

I don't really begrudge Gedling/NCC our council tax, I'm pretty sure it would cost me more to organise everything they do for us, myself!

Streetlamps for example, one went out outside our place last year and NCC has a website you can click on the street lamps and mark them as "out" and they pop round and fix them in a couple of days. The same with potholes, so long as you report them they fix them.

 

[quickshot89]

I don't really begrudge Gedling/NCC our council tax, I'm pretty sure it would cost me more to organise everything they do for us, myself!

Streetlamps for example, one went out outside our place last year and NCC has a website you can click on the street lamps and mark them as "out" and they pop round and fix them in a couple of days. The same with potholes, so long as you report them they fix them.

That must be the only council that has that. North Tyneside doesnt

 

[Kutter]

I pay just under $5000 a year in property tax to the town, i have to drive to the dump or pay a company $40 a month to empty my bins.

 

[Raumarik]

Ironically I have to pay nearly £40 to get a bulky uplift from my house, my neighbour who has never worked (she's told me this) would get it free, but instead just piles the rubbish up.

Tempted to just add to her pile next time I'm having a clear out, doubt she'd notice seeing as her washing has been on the line in the back garden since the start of March.

Regarding the petition - not signing, sorry but taxes have to be paid. Our local council is very good, probably as it's tiny, don't get me started on the likes of Glasgow City Council though..