Birmingham bankrupt

[Mr Kobayashi]

Our green bins are for food and garden waste and are emptied each week.

Our other bins are collected every 3 weeks, saving the council money with the lessened frequency.

No caddies, boxes etc, just 4 bins.

It works well.

I’d advocate it being rolled out across the country.

Depends on local conditions to be fair.

This is what happens with the food waste in Bristol:

"Bristol's food waste is processed by an 'anaerobic digester' at GENeco in Avonmouth. The food waste is broken down to produce methane which is then burnt to produce electricity and gas for the area. Recycling is taken to our transfer station to be baled up and sent on to reprocessors within the UK."

You probably wouldn't be able to do that efficiently if your food waste was mixed with grass and bramble.

And the quality of compost produced from garden waste might be reduced if filled with food waste crap.

Smart councils have been able to turn waste into revenue streams so the savings on labour and transport might actually be less than the lost revenue from using waste in situations like the quoted text.

Also lose a revenue stream in not charging for Garden waste, which is £56 a year in Cheshire and most councils could comfortably charge that. My council charges £63.50.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

Depends on local conditions to be fair.

This is what happens with the food waste in Bristol:

"Bristol's food waste is processed by an 'anaerobic digester' at GENeco in Avonmouth. The food waste is broken down to produce methane which is then burnt to produce electricity and gas for the area. Recycling is taken to our transfer station to be baled up and sent on to reprocessors within the UK."

You probably wouldn't be able to do that efficiently if your food waste was mixed with grass and bramble.

And the quality of compost produced from garden waste might be reduced if filled with food waste crap.

Smart councils have been able to turn waste into revenue streams so the savings on labour and transport might actually be less than the lost revenue from using waste in situations like the quoted text.

Also lose a revenue stream in not charging for Garden waste, which is £56 a year in Cheshire and most councils could comfortably charge that. My council charges £63.50.

I just don’t want the councils dropping more and more services, which the green bin charging does.

I do take your point about savvy councils finding ways for waste to pay and it’s sensible.

The terraced housing in Oldham don’t have green bins, they have the smaller caddies. I forgot to mention those, so apologies for that.

We have a large garden, so do use the green bin a lot, but if they started charging, I’d be creating a huge compost bin and have more fires. If we didn’t mulch our lawn cuttings, it’d fill the green bin twice over.

When you read posts like bluthrunthru’s about the rat problems in his council, it beggars belief that council’s can’t adapt their approach as it would save them money in the long run and have a nicer area to live in.

It seems we can’t plan ahead in this country and just jump from crisis to crisis without learning why the crisis happened in the first place.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

I just don’t want the councils dropping more and more services, which the green bin charging does.

It's not an essential service and by them charging for this they are able to balance the books to keep paying for essential things.

I do take your point about savvy councils finding ways for waste to pay and it’s sensible.

The terraced housing in Oldham don’t have green bins, they have the smaller caddies. I forgot to mention those, so apologies for that.

We have a large garden, so do use the green bin a lot, but if they started charging, I’d be creating a huge compost bin and have more fires. If we didn’t mulch our lawn cuttings, it’d fill the green bin twice over.

As you say, you have a large enough garden so it's easy to compost. Anyone else who has the requirement for a weekly or fortnightly collection of 90 litre green bin probably has a large enough space to compost it if they don't want to spend an extra £1.26 a week.

A garden shredder will cost you about £100 or even less when they have them in the middle of Lidl.

If I had the power I'd clamp down on garden bonfires and impose fines as it's terrible cause of air pollution and horrible stenches. Some shit behind us did this once and the ash blew all over our garden when we enjoying a summer evening out there.

When you read posts like bluthrunthru’s about the rat problems in his council, it beggars belief that council’s can’t adapt their approach as it would save them money in the long run and have a nicer area to live in.

It seems we can’t plan ahead in this country and just jump from crisis to crisis without learning why the crisis happened in the first place.

Without knowing the full facts it's hard to blame council collections as councils aren't usually responsible for collection of business waste, which is usually a big target for scavengers and vermin and often areas with HMOs or lots of students have issues with people putting domestic waste in bins.

It's something I used to do and I know my sister did the same because people don't take a fair share of the responsibility for putting the bins out when living in shared housing.

 

[Alan Harper's Tash]

It's not an essential service and by them charging for this they are able to balance the books to keep paying for essential things.





As you say, you have a large enough garden so it's easy to compost. Anyone else who has the requirement for a weekly or fortnightly collection of 90 litre green bin probably has a large enough space to compost it if they don't want to spend an extra £1.26 a week.

A garden shredder will cost you about £100 or even less when they have them in the middle of Lidl.

If I had the power I'd clamp down on garden bonfires and impose fines as it's terrible cause of air pollution and horrible stenches. Some shit behind us did this once and the ash blew all over our garden when we enjoying a summer evening out there.



Without knowing the full facts it's hard to blame council collections as councils aren't usually responsible for collection of business waste, which is usually a big target for scavengers and vermin and often areas with HMOs or lots of students have issues with people putting domestic waste in bins.

It's something I used to do and I know my sister did the same because people don't take a fair share of the responsibility for putting the bins out when living in shared housing.

One by one, though, more and more things are becoming non-essential. That’s my concern.

The burning thing was a quasi-joke, but cut services and people will find ways to not pay the extras.

I’d argue that collection of food waste should always be essential.

HMOs are an issue for refuse and recycling. It does need looking at.

 

[Mr Kobayashi]

One by one, though, more and more things are becoming non-essential. That’s my concern.

The burning thing was a quasi-joke, but cut services and people will find ways to not pay the extras.

I’d argue that collection of food waste should always be essential.

It is. But garden waste isn't. An added benefit of splitting food and garden waste (from the LA's POV) is that if there's bad weather or an industrial dispute, they can suspend garden waste collections to concentrate on essential waste collection until they have capacity again.

HMOs are an issue for refuse and recycling. It does need looking at.

Might also be a point in there that well run public waste collection companies could generate additional revenue by operating traded services and collecting trade waste [excluding specialist industry stuff] from retail and hospitality etc.

 

[Scottyboi]

My town council just voted through a 39% increase in their precept. 3 voted yes 2 no and 5 abstained, some democracy that. No budget or figures shown to justify why they need it either the wankers.

 

[TinFoilHat]

Notts/Derby/and Leicestershire councils are being merged. Ben Bradley has got the numbers to hide the money he's wasted in Notts by "unifying" the councils.

Makes it easier to hide when you spread your budget over three counties.

Bent fucker is surprisingly standing for the new unified mayor position in May.

 

[Ducado]

Local Government is one the cornerstones of good civic society prior to 1979 we had reasonable Local Government in that it was properly funded could it have improved of course it could, people forget how important clean and safe streets are until they are not clean and safe

Personally I would do away with all the separate boroughs and district councils, To give an example Manchester should be just one council it would save a fortune

 

[Vic]

Local Government is one the cornerstones of good civic society prior to 1979 we had reasonable Local Government in that it was properly funded could it have improved of course it could, people forget how important clean and safe streets are until they are not clean and safe

Personally I would do away with all the separate boroughs and district councils, To give an example Manchester should be just one council it would save a fortune

1979? Surely you mean 2010.

 

[Ducado]

1979? Surely you mean 2010.

1979 was the year Thatcher came to power public services were decimated and have never really recovered their was a brief respite under Labour but the full savergary of the cuts has never been reversed so much so that many people don't even remember things like Park Keepers etc

 

[BrianW]

A hardy annual in the Manchester Afternoon News is people complaining about Piccadilly Gardens and saying how much better it was when it was literally a garden.

So it was, but the labour costs of keeping it a showpiece were huge.

In this country, everyone wants European levels of public services for USA levels of tax. Thatcher and her shower persuaded them this was possible (that it could all be done by 'cutting waste'.) This was bollocks then, and it's still bollocks.

 

[bluethrunthru]

14 years of austerity

Councils in crisis: Town Hall debt levels staggering, MPs warn

The Public Accounts Committee warns of an "extreme and long-lasting effect" on public services.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Corky]

14 years of austerity

Councils in crisis: Town Hall debt levels staggering, MPs warn

The Public Accounts Committee warns of an "extreme and long-lasting effect" on public services.

www.bbc.co.uk

It says most of that borrowing is from the PWLB, which is normally for long term projects that generate an income under GPoC. It doesn't mean they are skint, for that they need to look at reserves.

There are barmy ones is where they have invested in risky businesses and lost it, which is very rare, most invest in housing companies and shopping centres etc.

 

[Vic]

It says most of that borrowing is from the PWLB, which is normally for long term projects that generate an income under GPoC. It doesn't mean they are skint, for that they need to look at reserves.

There are barmy ones is where they have invested in risky businesses and lost it, which is very rare, most invest in housing companies and shopping centres etc.

Is your mortgage a debt or is your house an asset? Both.

The daft thing is that so long as there is some security behind the investments, it makes sense to acquire more investments so that a more diverse portfolio means any bad investment can be offset against good ones. The alternative was just to leave reserves in the bank at low interest rates and lose value against inflation.

The Tory shtick is now to point to falling commercial property values, but that's largely down to their mismanagement of the economy (tenants can't afford to borrow). Councils may have to choose between borrowing to invest in their own town's regeneration or just letting shopping centres decline (and losing the business rates).

Wherever you look it's Tory policy that's the problem. Councils' housing stock transferred to Housing Associations, and councils were prevented from building new. But, until the government reined it in, a council could borrow from the government (public works loan board) at 1% interest, lend the same money at 2% interest to HAs to build new affordable homes, so the council got new homes and a profit on the lending, and if the HA did go bust, the council got the new houses (security on the loan).

As the article says, Pickles told councils to be more "commercial" to offset cuts in grants, even though they're saying now they didn't mean that sort of commercial.

 

[Corky]

Is your mortgage a debt or is your house an asset? Both.

The daft thing is that so long as there is some security behind the investments, it makes sense to acquire more investments so that a more diverse portfolio means any bad investment can be offset against good ones. The alternative was just to leave reserves in the bank at low interest rates and lose value against inflation.

The Tory shtick is now to point to falling commercial property values, but that's largely down to their mismanagement of the economy (tenants can't afford to borrow). Councils may have to choose between borrowing to invest in their own town's regeneration or just letting shopping centres decline (and losing the business rates).

Wherever you look it's Tory policy that's the problem. Councils' housing stock transferred to Housing Associations, and councils were prevented from building new. But, until the government reined it in, a council could borrow from the government (public works loan board) at 1% interest, lend the same money at 2% interest to HAs to build new affordable homes, so the council got new homes and a profit on the lending, and if the HA did go bust, the council got the new houses (security on the loan).

As the article says, Pickles told councils to be more "commercial" to offset cuts in grants, even though they're saying now they didn't mean that sort of commercial.

The 1% extra on the PWLB rate was mandatory to add on for state aid rules if you were then lending to some Joint Venture company with an RP.

Stock transfer was a con by lazy Councils, and usually to meet the Decent Homes Standard as the excuse. It was normally someone at the Council who became CEx of the new company. They didn't have to do it, and could retain stock under an ALMO, like Wigan, Bury, Stockport and the North Manchester stock all Council owned. A Council couldn't borrow against its rental income, but an ALMO could as long as it got a 3 star rating at the time, and they needed that funding to meet the standard, which was a 2010 target. The HRA Borrowing Cap was lifted about 6 years ago, and you have seen Councils bring back housing stock under their direct control since if an ALMO, however with LSVTs it is gone for good.

 

[bluethrunthru]

cry me a tucking river Tories - no cry me a river in a sports hall on Election Night when you are totally humiliated although I understand that depends on whether you have the backbone to stand for relection you pussies

More than 40 Tory MPs call for extra council funding

In a letter to the PM, the group warns of cuts to services without extra money for English councils.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[ChicagoBlue]

A hardy annual in the Manchester Afternoon News is people complaining about Piccadilly Gardens and saying how much better it was when it was literally a garden.

So it was, but the labour costs of keeping it a showpiece were huge.

In this country, everyone wants European levels of public services for USA levels of tax. Thatcher and her shower persuaded them this was possible (that it could all be done by 'cutting waste'.) This was bollocks then, and it's still bollocks.

The American “lower taxes” drive is all part of a “starve the beast” model, but they just don’t mention “the beast” is your services and government assistance!

Like the right wing signs that say “KEEP GOVT OUT OF MY MEDICARE,” which is a federal, tax-based, program!

YCMIU!

The answer, of course, is to make the whole Piccadilly Gardens - Market Street - St Ann’s Sq - Deansgate complex an attractive pedestrian area.

The problem is it’s Manchester and the area would need to be clean, tidy and well policed. Quandary.

Scrotes have made it the way it is, so who has the balls to clean that shit up and keep it that way? NOBODY!

 

[I'm With Stupid]

In this country, everyone wants European levels of public services for USA levels of tax. Thatcher and her shower persuaded them this was possible (that it could all be done by 'cutting waste'.) This was bollocks then, and it's still bollocks.

The other classic being "if we cut taxes, we'll actually bring in more revenue in total."

 

[salfordbluetrue]

Well FFP worked them, perhaps they should sue.

 

[ChicagoBlue]

The other classic being "if we cut taxes, we'll actually bring in more revenue in total."

Ah, The Laffer Curve!

CAN work in a perfect, theoretical, economic world. Too bad we don’t live there!

Without economic growth, with the increasing tax revenues it generates, the offset of rates to revenues is impossible to both quantify and, more importantly, collect!