Pick a question for Brown, Clegg & Cameron...

matchmade

Llanjen wrote: »

Petrol prices are high because vehicles do a lot of harm to the environment and peoples' lives and require a lot of taxes to keep the roads in shape. I want the new government to finally do something about the prices of public transport.

The tax on petrol is massively higher than the amount of money spent on roads, and the extra amount is not spent on improving the environment or people's quality of life: it all goes into a big pot and is used to pay for things like people living permanently off benefits or tax credits for people earning up to £50,000 a year.

Why should car drivers subsidise public transport? I *need* my car to run my business and get around town during the day. If I tried to use public transport I would quickly go bankrupt as I'd spend most of my day hanging around waiting for buses or walking from bus stops to my destinations. The vast majority of people will always stick to their cars because it allows them to go exactly where they want to go, and link together a series of stop-off points during the day. Public transport is only viable for the relatively small proportion of people who need to go to just one place and back again each day. Why should these people be subsidised at the cost of everyone else?

matchmade

tori.k wrote: »

My bug bear is water...one of life's necessities but being stuck with south west water tarrifs (meter or not) is crippling most households in the southwest.

There's a very easy way to cut your water bill: use less water. My mother lives in the south-west (south Devon) and has cut her water bill with a meter to £120 a year. The actual amount of drinking water you need to live is tiny. If you have a power shower, get rid of it and use a traditional gravity-fed one instead. See if you can shower in a minute or less, and/or shower less often and wash with a flannel from time to time: you need only a couple of sink-fulls or even less if you wash by hand. Make your kids share a bath with a couple of inches of water - that will be plenty. Don't water your garden. Flush your loo much less often - as the Australians say, if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down. Only use the washing machine when it's absolutely necessary.

When you really make an effort, and accept a few compromises, you can make massive inroads on the amount of water you use.

tori.k

matchmade wrote: »

There's a very easy way to cut your water bill: use less water. My mother lives in the south-west (south Devon) and has cut her water bill with a meter to £120 a year. The actual amount of drinking water you need to live is tiny. If you have a power shower, get rid of it and use a traditional gravity-fed one instead. See if you can shower in a minute or less, and/or shower less often and wash with a flannel from time to time: you need only a couple of sink-fulls or even less if you wash by hand. Make your kids share a bath with a couple of inches of water - that will be plenty. Don't water your garden. Flush your loo much less often - as the Australians say, if it's yellow, let it mellow, if it's brown, flush it down. Only use the washing machine when it's absolutely necessary.

When you really make an effort, and accept a few compromises, you can make massive inroads on the amount of water you use.

If it was just DH & I we would be on a meter tarrif, but add in 3 kids on the current meter tarrifs and our bill would more than likely almost double,
It's the huge waste water cost and standing charges for keeping both North & South coasts clean while keeping SWW shareholders massive profits that is breaking the backs of most Cornish Families.
We already like a lot of people try to conserve water where we can from an enviromental point of view (tho dont think i'd have much luck getting a 14 & 16 year old to share a bath)

Logic to me would be for OFWAT to have the guts to bring in one meter Tarrif fee for the whole of England, my water rates would more than likely stay the same as they are now and decrease when the kids leave home. but a single person living on a min-wage in Cornwall on a assesed charge tarrif of £300 pa wouldnt have to pay the nigh on the same as a family living somewhere in the midlands