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council tax - get them to lower costs

on another rant here, let me know if your local council is just as bad...

I pay a heck of alot in council tax - allegedly im in one of the highest areas in Scotland and indeed, Britain.

So I decided to take a look at what the council spends my money on.

£10k went to some farce of an "art" piece.
£30k when on another farce of an "art" piece.
£25k on another farce of an "art" piece.

so essentially they have spent £65k of crap that nobody wanted. how about a flipping discount on the council tax instead!!!! Or how about fitting secure entry to my flat block so drug users cannot get in the way of my daughter or my partner? That would only cost £300.

I put forward the notion that councillors are put on minimum wage as their basic wage. Now I do believe that some of their work deserves a higher pay. Therefore, each person is permitted to vote on whether or not they think their representative deserves their bonus pay to make up the difference at the end of each year. If the person fails to meet their promises and our standards, they can take a hike for it, make them work for the money. Gordon Brown could do the same!!

Comments

  • elmer
    elmer Posts: 939 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Photogenic
    Blimey, what a rant,

    perhaps you should address this to your councillor, they would be able to "explain" why your council bought the art and also why you still have things that need attention, and havent been looked at.
    They also can explain why they set your CT at the level its at, as they vote for it.

    Elmer
  • lol cheers. i go off on tangents very often. I think i will do what you recommend though, would be interesting to see how they can justify such waste.
  • Altarf
    Altarf Posts: 2,916 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    An alternative view is that all taxpayers can benefit from the art, but only the residents of the block of flats will benefit from the lock. So if the block of flats needs a new £300 lock, then put the rent up to cover it.

    I am sure that you will disagree, but with any spending covering a group of people, there is some you will benefit from and some you wont.

    Anyway, if you disagree with the spending, you could always become a councillor.
  • lol i can imagine that. Well I suppose, that is true, though what I am trying to get my council to do is provide a subsidy for private owners, tenants and council home tenants to make it more affordable, without increasing the cost of living in that area. whilst reducing crime. so it would benefit a large number of people.

    Alternatively, they could spend the money adopting more pavements making them safer to walk over, correcting pot holes with more than a 3 week solution of rubber chips and tar and employing more community wardens to stave of the vandalism.
  • Got a link to any pics of these "Art" pieces? Then we can make a better judgement ;)
    55378008
  • what a fab idea! For example, we have a dozen poles with a metal "wing" shape on them. (looks like i bent it over my knee). Each one cost 10k. Will research tonight for any existing pics or take my own!
  • exil
    exil Posts: 1,194 Forumite
    I imagine the total cost of that art would amount to about £1 per tax payer. I can't comment on whether it was worth it, but making towns look attractive rather than like a candidate for the "C**p towns" award isn't necessarily a bad thing for a council to do.

    It's legitimate to question how your money is spent. Have a word with your councillor - especially if he's the opposite party to the one in power.
  • certainly, some art deco I see as a benefit to the city beautification process. for example, being Dundee, there was a statue of desperate dan erected in gratitude to DC Thomson and The Dandy comic book. and its in the city centre, where people get benefit on a regular basis.

    metal wings however at the side of a 50mph road that seem to do nothing other than reflect glaring morning sunlight into the drivers faces (whilst doing said 50mph) is a complete waste of money. they allegedly refer to the airport. I would have thought a standard road sign with "airport" would have sufficed. and cost far less.
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