In At Number 2

[steveL]

So Hartlepool has moved up yet another place in the council tax league and now stands at Number 2.

I was a bit surprised earlier in the year when Drummond wrote in his Mail column that he would be supporting a council tax freeze. In previous years, he had harped on about how freezing council tax only lowered the tax base which would cause problems later down the line.

Likewise, up until virtually the last minute, the Labour Group had favoured a rise in council tax of 1.95%, the maximum that they could get away with without it triggering a referendum on the matter.

I believe that there are two reasons for the change of heart:

• With Rutland choosing to freeze their own council tax, then if Hartlepool had gone ahead with it's planned 1.95% rise it would have overtaken Rutland and finally claimed that No. 1 slot. That wouldn't have made for much of a legacy for Drummond who, if you remember, was originally elected on a banner of free bananas and lower council tax.
• The second reason is that, having jumped up and down about many of its core supporters finding themselves being made to pay at least part of their council tax for the first time, the measures introduced to eleviate this would have been pretty much cancelled out had the council tax itself been increased. This would mean that people could justifiably claim that the higher amounts those core supporters would have had to pay its supporters could be traced back to Labour support for a council tax increase.

All of which means we should be thanking Rutland for our own council tax freeze because I'm pretty sure if Rutland had gone ahead with an increase then HBC would surely have followed.

[mk1]

The usual excuses about  the 'average' council tax are being trotted out.  The average council tax payer is as common as the average family with 2.5 children (i.e no one pays the 'average'  council tax and no one has 2.5 children) so let us  compare actual payments on band A in Boro, Liverpool and Hartlepool for 2012-13

Liverpool band A =  £1017


Midlesbrough  band A =  £1044



Hartlepool pool band A =  £1119

Liverpool is £1.96 a week cheaper and Boro  £1.55.

All 3 have around the same number of band A houses, 50-57% and despite both Boro and Liverpool being officially more 'deprived' than Hartlepool they managed to charge less!

I think the difference can be explained by the large numbers of councillor's  friends and relatives who are supported by the Council  Grant gravy train.
Someone also has to pay for  the cruises and holidays in the Bahamas our rulers think they deserve.

[fred c]

You have well & truly blown out of the water "The Mobs" usual propaganda on the Council Tax, The SCAB`s trot out all sorts of excuses for the towns high tax rate.

mk1`s like for like example above, destroys another "Mob" myth, yet another example of why the banning of Public Questioning of Councillors is a disgrace.

Hardof Hearings inconsistent behaviour over D Riddles question at the last meeting was a pointer to "The Mob" that the public are at last waking up to the shambolic way in which they are attempting to run the town.

There are serious issues on the agenda in the next few months ie. W/C & The Peer Group Report & they can`t afford to make another balls-up in an Open Forum.

One of the criticisms of the Peer group Report was a lack of Openess, Transparency & Accountability, Banning Public questions has shown the report was right in raising such concerns, & CAB negated much of the power the Inquiry would have by making yet another amendment limiting the cost to £20,000

[no6bus]

it doesnt help our council tax when you have a parking attendant on double time and a lieu day wandering round the car park at bryan hanson house on a good friday afternoon.

[mk1]

it doesnt help our council tax when you have a parking attendant on double time and a lieu day wandering round the car park at bryan hanson house on a good friday afternoon.

He (if it was the same man) was crossing York road at the library at 3 o'clock.