General Chat

What I really want to know is where is the money going? The pavements badly need relaying before someone has an accident. I never see a policeman anywhere. I rarely see a road sweepeer and never in our road, only the high street. I could go on and on. We pay £146 per month, which is a lot of money. The lady next door is a pensioner of 70 something, also a widow and pays £120 each month. She's taking it out of her savings. We both live in a three bed semi and it's not even a posh area. Can this be right, this vast amount of money we all pay? Jo.

Oh come on Joanne, You know the answer as well as we do. By the time the ADMINISTRATION have had their slice there is nothing left to pay real workers.

To be fair they do try our local council. Although I do have about 7 tons of leaves outside my house. Dangerous for anyone slipping on them. I feel like a Hobbit#1

council tax is a disgrace!...now there going to increase it in london,to help fund the olympics...well, i hope we dont win the bid...the lottery will also be funding it....since when is the olympics a charity?...since when are our olympic athletes amateur?....not for over 20yrs. bryan.

I wondered what you were paying in your area. Just comparing notes. No body else has yet said they think they are paying to much. Jo.

Re Bryan. I'm just outside the London area in Herfordshire and yes I would begrudge paying even more. Why should we have to pay for the Oylimpics when there must be trillions of £'s in the government coffers. Jo.

I pay over £600 ayear of an £900 + bill (25% discount). Our local council offices have just been revamped AGAIN to the tune of nearly two million pounds. Apparently they had to replace the carpet in the Foyer (which is the size of a Football Stadium and houses a Reception Desk). I tried to find out which particular fool decided on a carpet for a public area such as this, but of course, didnt get anywhere with that. Apparently carpet is preferable to tiles/paving slabs etc because of "Staff Comfort Issues" Eh? What do they do, lay on it all day? They should do what we used to do in the Market where I worked, get a car mat, put it on a bit of cardboard and stand on that. (Mind you, we didnt have any Staff Comfort Issues) And what happened to the old carpet, bet there were enough good bits left for me to carpet my house, or perhaps more appropriately the house of a pensioner?

Mine is £1,700 a year. Anyone like to pay it for me?

Aileen, you are paying about the same as me. Do you get value for money? Actually I thought this thread would get you all riled up, but it has'nt. Jo.

Ours is about £1700 a year. Thought that was a lot,then the other day,we got a letter from a management company,working on behalf of the house builders telling us we had to pay another £150 a year for them for Ground maintenance and insurance for the stupid tiny play park they built miles away from our house.Would be ok if we lived in a flat where u pay a charge for communal areas etc,but we live in a house! I though the council tax covered things like road sweepers and stuff? Anna :-)

Camberwell, you are living on my doorstep. I'm in London Colney. We're paying the same council then. Jo.

I chaired fORUM 50+ and we the retired of the area had protest meetings outside the Council Offices,We were on Local TV and in the papers.We had plackards which demended a complete breakdown of how our council had got itself 3.5 million in the Red. If you or I had owed money our assests would have been taken to set against the debt. Why if a coumcil and its Officers eg The Treasurer,have mismanaged are they not liable to repay the money they have lost . Why are their houses not sold and their cars not auctioned to repay the debt. WPBC HAS SAID IT WILL NEED TO INCREASE OUR COUNCIL tAX BECAUSE IT HAS OVER SPENT. It is obviously my day for moaning Sorry folks.-Rose

I live in Wakefield in quite a small 3 bedroomed house. My Council tax is £750 a year. Every April we get a breakdown showing where the money has gone. Mainly Fire, Police & Ambulance services. If they didn't take it off us in the form of Council tax they would get it some other way! Jack

i think my council tax is far too much!!! we pay £105 a month,but god knows what for. the streets are a mess,we never see a policeman walking the beat,half the street lamps are not working.i could go on and on!! last year we paid £86 a month,so it beggers belief what the increase is for,and our wages havent gone up to meet it!!!!! susie

We pay £1200 a year for a band D house, 3 bed detached. Supposedly the same as Bambi would pay for his £3 million pad, why 'cos that's in a Tory area and we are in a Labour one.

My council tax is £119 a month. I live in Surrey Heath. We are all paying for a fiasco of a car park, where the Council was taken for a ride by developers. I would like to know how they managed to lose such a massive amount of money, do they answer to no-one? Christine

We must be the most ripped off nation in the world, wev'e been hit with council tax for services that appear to be non existant, but wait till the new EURO TAX COMES IN thats going to be an even bigger rip off with sympathy Len