The Highland Council is seeking views on whether we would be willing to pay more as a way of easing the pain of what has to come. They say on their website today:
'In week six of its Budget Blog, The Highland Council is asking if users of services are prepared to pay more for the services they receive from the Council to ease the impact of public spending cutbacks.
The Council already charges for a range of services, including school meals, hire of rooms and facilities, commercial refuse collection, leisure centre use, car parking, and burials. It receives income of approximately £68 million from these charges.
By increasing charges over and above inflation, the Council estimates it could inject £3.7 million into the budget over the next two years and ease the need for savings'
The Council already charges for a range of services, including school meals, hire of rooms and facilities, commercial refuse collection, leisure centre use, car parking, and burials. It receives income of approximately £68 million from these charges.
By increasing charges over and above inflation, the Council estimates it could inject £3.7 million into the budget over the next two years and ease the need for savings'
You can contribute your views on this Highland Council webpage.
8 comments:
A mere 3.7 million injected into the budget over the next 2 years where the council need to reduce spending by 36 million - possibly more.
It seems that we might have taken the provision of these public services for granted for far too long.
Investing in the future via investing in our young people's education and showing ourselves to be a humane society by caring for vulnerable groups costs money, as does providing social facilities that bind us together, such as librarys, swimming pools and community centres.
We will need to reassess our priorities and fast.
Er...pay more? After all the years of waste and squandering? Are the council having a laugh?
No. Since to myself the council could save millions be cutting half the councillors and getting rid of most of the mid-level managers above. Cut the wages of anyone above 50K by 15% and you more money for things. Why is it always the front-line workers that are hit, not the ivory tower workers.
Frankly no. It's quite clear how wasteful councils are and I've no doubt will remain to be. They are constantly telling us they need to pay top dollar or they will lose their top officials to the private sector. Well tell them to go and find a job in the private sector. What's happening on Nairn High Street is a typical example. They are changing the colour of our pavements for £800k while the seagulls do it for us every year for nothing. If they can get to grips with dealing with the gull problem what hope have we of them running budgets worth tens of millions.
Why can't government and public sector change the way they use budgets. The Nairn cash could have been banked until we are ready for a revamp after a new town centre supermarket is built. All this cash will be spent and when we need money to carry out improvements between the High Street and King Street there will be nothing in the kitty.
Years ago when my bank lent me money when I didn't have any I had to pay it back (with interest)
We all lent (or was it gave?) the banks a considerable fortune not so long ago, time to start paying back the loan to us, or is it bonus time and trading as per normal?
We've all been had, and the likes of THC asking for more money from us underlines that
Hey, how about this? We all just take our shirts off and give them willingly to the highest bidder? No, I don't think so. Of course, in my case, it would be lovely sexy underwear, but hey - same thing, right?
Instead of asking me to pay more for council services I think that the council would make much more money if they cut the waste and extravagance that they currently indulge in.
never a truer word spoken you only have too look at their performance. time after time they do things then a month down the line they change it again. i have seen this on more than one occasion and it makes you think do they know what is going on. keep it real guys look listen and learn. before you waste any more of our money.
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