3.9% and the Lost £6m

[mk1]

He said he was going to Newcastle to see Star Wars, isn't it showing at our local cinema?

I suspect it was deliberate (if it did happen) and done so he could drag out the only argument he knows about local trains (Pacers are old) in the hope  no one would notice he is talking merde. The very least problem with local trains is the age of the stock. Perhaps more trains after 21:00 might be more important?  Local politicians are completely clueless how anyone  without their access to free petrol and railway tickets  on expenses get about the area.

[DRiddle]

http://m.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/councillor-hits-out-at-council-tax-hike-plan-1-7666233

[pensionater]

Funny i thought it was the Tory governments fault that increases would have to be implemented to cover cuts.Be interesting to hear the alternatives .Another meeting Mr Riddle couldn't attend.This from a man who declared he wouldn't put himself forward to be a Councillor unless he could give 100%,and isn't The Mail terrible,unless you want to use it for self promotion.p.s.hows the campaign against the building of the houses on a possible significant historical part of Hartlepool?.Suppose it's not a big enough political point scorer.

[DRiddle]

The meetings tomorrow. A Monday. I'll be busy working for a living to ensure I can afford to pay my council tax 

[mk1]

Note the Mail have 'buried' this story on an inside page whilst the front page has really important local stories like the fact it may snow during the winter-with 2 articles on this unexpected event!

[mk1]

Funny i thought it was the Tory governments fault that increases would have to be implemented to cover cuts.Be interesting to hear the alternatives .

Don't award council funding to your low IQ (a Hartlepool Labour Party entry requirement) councillor mates   might be one alternative.

[steveL]

This is not an exhaustive list; I could go on. However, while the current financial straits of HBC can be partly attributed to the policies of the current Government there's a lot to be said for putting your own house in order first before you start whining about it.

* HBC continues to pay the cost of employing full-time union officials as well as providing their office facilities even though council staff are estimated to pay around £250,000 a year in union subscriptions. UNISON, the main beneficiaries of this policy, are currently the Labour Party's largest contributors and currently sponsors several local councillors.

* Councillors managed to slip in a pay rise for themselves last year on the back of an increase for council staff. Meanwhile, councillors like Jim Ainslie are still picking up over £384 each time they chair a quarterly, two-hour neighbourhood forum.

* It's estimated that scrapping the local plan has cost the council £1.5m. As yet, there is no definite completion date for its replacement.

* £1.5m is also the cost of HBC's purchase of Jacksons Landing which it did partly through using a £1m two-year interest free loan; the other 500,000 came from its own funds.. When the chance came to defer £100,000 of the repayment to a later date, the council chose to spend the money on employing new Enforcement Officers (for the most part in Owton Manor) rather than use it to mitigate the effects of cuts elsewhere.

* Despite receiving £325,000 grant from the Big Lottery fund and allocating £75,000 of its own money for the Waverley Allotment Project, the council was forced to find another £21,000 after it realised that it had forgotten to include a disabled toilet in the plans. It took the money from the capital budget for Respite Care which provides a much need break for in-family carers.

* Despite headlines in The Mail of a cash windfall from the Seaton Domes which would be spent on everything from free swimming sessions for kids to helping to pay off the Jacksons landing loan no cash ever appeared. Jumping the gun meant that HBC was forced to find the money to pay for the swimming sessions from elsewhere.

* Without explanation, HBC waived its right to approx £800,000 on '106 money' which would normally have been paid by the Wynyard Housing Developer. It then went on to waive another £27,000 which should have come from the 12 houses being built on the former King Oswy Pub site financed by SENECA. '106 money' from the Masefield Road development, which normally would have gone to local schools has been used to plant a 'community orchard' of Apple and Plum trees.

* Hartlepool Council paid out £433,076 in car mileage allowances to staff in 2014/15 for a claimed 824,908 miles of travel - the equivalent of driving around the equator 34 times. HBC pays more than HMRC considers 'reasonable'.

* The now infamous 'Cafe in the Crem' cost HBC £400,000 to set up and has now lost money every year since it opened though the council is reluctant to tell us how much.

* The launch of 'The Vision' is estimated to have cost £150,000 for the consultants and glossy brochures. It's not been revealed as yet what the cost of the consultant led feasibility study into the recently trailed Stem Centre has been but it's reckoned to be around £40,000.

[steveL]

All parts of the Vision have one thing in common - they continue to rack up costs without a single brick having been laid.

[steveL]

I reckon £6m is the equivalent to about a 15% council tax increase.

http://www.hartlepoolpost.co.uk/article_put%20your%20own%20house%20in%20order.htm

[fred c]

"Cranney was up for re-election the following May and so it was decided to use council money to buy the bakery from DISC as the only way to stop the development going ahead. The end cost was in the region of £150,000"

The £150,000 was to purchase the bakery, add to that the cost of removing the work done by DISC, legal fees, architects fees & the conversion into a pair of semi detached house, I reckon your up to the £250,000 mark.

They talk about Masterplans & Visions & they haven`t managed to convert an old bakery into a pair of semi`s in 12 months, delusional fools, who have no idea of the real value of the council tax they so wantonly waste.

Would they be as keen on spending their own money as readily as they are spending ours, I very much doubt it.

[craig finton]

I reckon by the time the Police and Fire Brigade add their precepts we could be well on the way to 4.5%

[seaton]

Correct me if I am wrong the Council Tax rise will not impact every one as I believe a great many of the town don't pay the full amount as they are on benefits, which could include Cranneys and Belchers wards and a few others.

[DRiddle]

Everybody pays SOME council tax, even those in receipt of every benefit going (and I mean that with no offence to people on benefits). But it's the people on 'middle incomes' who are being squeezed the hardest by this.

Think of it like a 'bell shaped' graph.

Those on the left side of the bell (as you start to draw it), the very low earners, will barely notice the rise because, as you said, their subsidies will kick in and it'll be a few pence per week.

Those on the right side of the bell (as you finish drawing it) are the high earners. They'll be annoyed but the rise for top band houses is likely to be 'un noticed' by people on good money.

Me, you (I'm guessing) and the vast, VAST majority of people are in the middle part of the bell, the wide fat bit. We pay our own way, get by, have SOME disposable income, but we're being squeezed.

In many respects we're the ones who'll feel the rise most. Even MORE in some respects than the low earners at the bottom of the bell.

It's a VERY dangerous approach to keep squeezing the middle. Principally because hard working middle income people will eventually 'cut back' on their spending. We'll stop going to that restaurant for a meal, we'll put off having that new set of double glazing put in, we won't trade in our cars for a newer one.

When that starts happening, and I'd say it already is, every single business and service in Hartlepool will suffer lost trade. The knock on effect of that (businesses closing, job losses, lost business rates, MORE people having to reply on benefits etc.) can be cataclysmic. Especially for an area which already has high unemployment and social deprivation.

Mark my words, this decision from Akers-Belcher is far, FAR, more dangerous to the towns economy than people realise. He seems intent on turning Hartlepool into a British Detroit.

[fred c]

It certainly impacts on people with fixed incomes, pensioners etc, the annoyance is when you look at Cwis & Lying Ste's income from councillors allowances alone it will be bordering on £35,000 +

Take a look through the councillors Register of Interests, it would appear that the majority of LabTor Clowncillors have no visible means of support, the 1st question on the form is in regards to income.......NONE, is the predominant answer.

[fred c]

It certainly impacts on people with fixed incomes, pensioners etc, the annoyance is when you look at Cwis & Lying Ste's income from councillors allowances alone it will be bordering on £35,000 +

Take a look through the councillors Register of Interests, it would appear that the majority of LabTor Clowncillors have no visible means of support, the 1st question on the form is in regards to income.......NONE, is the predominant answer.


Apologies It should have read.

the 1st question on the form is in regards to Employment, Trade , Proffesion, Vocation.......NONE, is the predominant answer.