Monday, May 31, 2010

Local Authorities reducing expenditure?

Well no, not exactly. They are just moving it elsewhere. In England District and Borough Councils are transferring costs down to the Parish Councils in their area because they know Parish Councils are not subject to the capping rules that apply them.

The District and/or Borough Council simply refuses to contribute to essential items like toilets leaving the parish or town council to pick up the bill or loose them. This type of liability transfer is not restricted to toilets but being applied to a whole range of services that the District or Borough Council are not forced by law to provide but the loss of which will have serious effects on the local people.

Similarly District and Borough Councils are raising revenues elsewhere by increasing fees for services like local car parks and leisure services BUT are very secretive with what savings they have made by efficiency improvements, staff reductions and reduced remunerations.

If you think I am making this up be sure that I am not, the precept of our local town council has increased from 3% of the total Council Tax to a massive 8%. They have picked up the costs of services that were once provided elsewhere. This is not saving money this is "cooking the books" and deceiving the general public once again.

This leaves us with higher council tax bills, higher car parking and higher other local charges. The Local Authorities have not got the message yet that they need to actually CUT costs and stop trying to pass the buck by moving things about pretending that they are doing something.

We need toilets and we need car parks and we need leisure services BUT we need them provided economically and efficiently and that is NOT done by fiddling about with who pays for them.