What do they spend our council tax on?

Question

Our local council say they have no council houses available and homeless families are offered hostels or told to find private rents.

The roads are in a terrible condition.

We get no recycling collection, just big green wheelie bins into which everything is chucked.

The police are useless - after my partner was threatened with a knife by the local hoodies we rang the police and they said they'd come and take a statement. They never did.

Yet they charge us all nearly £1,000 each per month in Council tax.

Just what the hell are they spending it on then?

Certainly not on "services"!!

We're in the South Wales Valleys. Its a hole. We'd move if we could but can't afford to buy a house anywhere else + private rents are too expensive, plus we're tied to the area with work and my elderly mum. We've thought of going to Kent where my other half is originally from. But their councils seem to be the other way - they fine you for letting your dog the lead in the street!

Oh and our streets are full of dog poo too.

Sorry that was typo, yes its a bit less than £1000 per year (about £950). Lol its early and I've been up half the night with a teething baby, please excuse me!

Answer 1

it's a mystery, if you find out let me know

8 months ago a lorry backed into a post,just outside our works.
7 months ago a man came along to assess the damage.
5 months ago An electician came to make the electric safe from this post, (all he did basically was to wrap loads of tape around the post.
3 Months ago 3 workmen came to take the post away.
then after 2 more weeks someone came to fill in the whole
1 month ago the same 3 guys made a new hole for a new post 1 foot away from previous hole.
1 week ago they put a new post in.
However this new post is not connected to the electricity supply as yet.
Yesterday, the new post was hit by another lorry.

Answer 2

My council have spend £60,000 buying themselves a box at the O2 [Dome] here in Greenwich.

Don't think they've done much else with the enormous Council Tax money they collect.

Down my street there are several yellow paint marks on the pavement. These are to show where the loose paving stones are. They've been like this for months. Well, at least we know which paving stones to avoid.

The roads where I live always look a bit of a mess with cracks in the tarmac etc. Problem for the council is that all the roads near me were built in the 1930s with sufficient depth of concrete to withstand the weight of a 60-ton battle tank. We were apparently preparing for WW-2.

Digging a whole in the road where I live takes days. Then the workers go off for 'tea' and come back a week later.

Part of our council tax money goes to pay for such as the fire department, police and so forth. Have never seen a copper around where I live, except race through in a car with the blue light flashing and the siren screaming. Wonder if they ever catch anyone? Probably not.

The reason your council and most others now have no available council flats/houses, is entirely due to the Thatcherite plot to sell off all the council properties in the UK. The right to buy is the cause of the problem. That plus no new house-build by council over at least a decade or more.

I was born in 1941 and remember the post-war years and the tremendous housing shortage then, caused by war damage. In 1953 the then Tory UK.gov lead by Harold MacMillan managed to build 300,000 new council homes in that year alone. What happened to that idea?

Answer 3

Well, I live in Kent, and they are currently spending our council tax moving the A2 about 10 meters to the left of where it is now (because residents complaigned about the noise from the road - though most of us think that the road was there before they moved in, so it's their fault they live there. They should have just bought a house somewhere else). Oh, and they spent it on 'modernising' the council offices, which cost a few million. How any of this helps me, i have no idea. But at least we have weekly collections, with seperate collections for recycling and normal rubbish.

As for the police, well, they are quite useless wherever you live. Whilst i was on holiday last year some drunk kids came out of the pub, drove into my road and hit my car so hard it ended up about three houses away from my house. They then drove off. However, the police still came to my house to ask members of my family for statements, even though we were in america at the time. THat's all they did. No-one was ever caught. Just before Xmas a drain cover was stolen from outside my house, on the A227, which is a major road in this area, and really busy. The cover was an old iron one, so obviously sold for scrap for about £100. However, cars spent the next day swirving around this giant hole in the road, and dispite me myself calling the police and the local council, it took three weeks, three different police forces and one highway maintinence team to sort it out. So there's where my money was spent that year.

But i think that generally, the money is spent on, as where I live, making things a little more cosy for the councillers, and printing leaflets on rubbish, and so on. Only a small amount ever actually gets back to the people who paid it in terms of the services they recieve.

Answer 4

You got it!!!! Absolute rip off....In Cumbria it is broken down by Police, Ambulance service, Schools, rubbish collection or council services and an amount for the Parish Council. I contacted my local council to ask as 1) i do not use the schools as children grown up and moved away as no employment locally. 2) would never call an ambulance and have always gone to hospital by car 3) Never see a policeman apart from when they pass in a panda car probably going for their breaks 4) the local parish council haven't got a clue what they do as apart from a couple of benches that have been placed in the village, which are now used for teens to hang around causing mischief,do not see where they spend their budget.....so could I have a rebate....they said get lost..... If a business traded like that they would be reviewed under the trades description act

Answer 5

Perhaps you could write to your council or MP to ask them exactly what it is they spend it all on, they'd probably tell you without too much fuss.

The valleys aren't particularly highly populated, and there's a lot of unemployment there. The valleys even qualify for extra money from the EU they're so poor. That might explain why your services aren't so good, there's not a lot of people to give the money, and what money they can give is often not enough to cover a large area.

Of course that's not a good thing at all. The council probably are misspending a large amount of your council tax, just as all councils do everywhere. They seem especially fond of building new council offices too - they're doing it in Salisbury too as well as Kent I see.

One way to sort that out is to run for the council yourself and sort it out from the inside.

Answer 6

Here in South Lakeland District Council/Cumbria County Council, I feel I get good value for money, even though we are not a very densely populated area. The roads are a little shoddy, but the waste collection service is great (including recycling), police and fire service are very efficient. Education is excellent, social services are on the ball for the care of the elderly (don't know how good child protection services are as I haven't come into contact with them). They support local art events well. It is a very safe and clean area to live in, amazing when you consider it is run by Lib Dems!

Answer 7

HI if you come to BRACKNELL (soon to become a new new town)
PLEASE look around the streets

RUBBISH ie glass and plastic bottles, pittza, kabab, burger wrappers ive even found druggy needels on the paths broken glass you name it its there, one more dog poo lots of it.

The RUBBISH has been dumped for months, plus fly tipping no lie.you can smell it
Council do not cut hedges much, and churn the grass when they cut it every blue moon

Fire and Amberlance service GREAT


The police, well its like spot the ball .

The roads and paths no lie (less bumps and pot holes if you climb a mountain)

COUNCIL TAX ITS GOING ON NEW HOUSES & FLATS FOR the people who do not belonge in this country or the the scroungers who do not want to work. Roll on april it going up again so the council big bosses can have bigger rise and longger holidays why you and i plus other working class people S T R U G G L E

Lets start make Britain GREAT BRITAIN AGAIN our green and plesant land
thats it good bye
*

Answer 8

fascinated to pay attention you're paying extra because of the fact the administrative.iced over the council tax for many persons by employing preserving close by government furnish. I recommend you progression. extra perfect nevertheless I recommend you give up producing rubbish, employing the roads and all those different issues that the council has to repair because of the fact human beings over use and abuse the centers offered. in case you do no longer use any council offered provider, facility,etc you have have been given a case for no longer paying however the priority is you will continuously discover which you're employing a minimum of one council offered facility or provider.

Answer 9

Crikey I'll never complain about my council. Good schools (2 schools top in the top 15% graded by ofstead for the country)
We have mounted police, police and community support officers, great hospitals inc. an A&E plus a great fire service.

Lots of local events, flower displays, lovely parks, the streets are swept daily and rubbish collected once a week with recyclable and garden wast collections on alternative weeks. There's plenty of parks but as usual vandals ruin them

Though I must tell you surestart is paid for by your council not the government. A surestart employee told me of their award ceremonies - they are given an hour paid leave to get ready for the ceremony and when they get there it's a 3 course meal complete with champagne!! Award winners get monetary rewards (for doing their PAID job).

Answer 10

How long have you got? The councils spend council tax on their christmas parties. they choose the most expensive venue. They send out expensive Invitations and have expensive menues printed. They only drink Bottled water not tap water. Then they build things like greenhouses without any consultation they might have a few thousand homeless but well it doesnt matter. When they hold their expensive meetings they often have outside catering brought in. They pay the MPS far to much. Of course council Directors need lots of money and expenses. They hold a three day seminar on what to do with a ciggarette end ones you have finished with it. A recent thing is to have alot of fabric bags made which they are giving away they claim are free but your council tax paid for them. It is to stop people using carrier bags and although I support this. I recycle those bags for my rubbish so I don't have to buy bin bags. They also have very expensive hoardings made for when they are holding job fairs advertising jobs that don't really exist when they are there they need food and drink for themselves and the people they are misleading who attend these things, personally I would go for a free lunch. They also hold training courses for their own employees and to try to get members of the public to do something like voluntery work which the goverment does not have to pay for. (this is so tiring) I could go on and on but the council like throwing our money away.