Herefordshire Council Hereford Council Budget for 2014/15 - Help us please!

[dippyhippy]

Interesting to note that Pat thinks bi-weekly refuse collection will have "financial and environmental benefits" yet fails to see that the use/cost of outdated incinerator facilities, ticks neither box!!

We pay more, we get less, and we are supposed to just sit back and take it??

If there had been huge improvements in children's services.....I might be a tad more forgiving of an increase. But the OFSTED report came out in October 2012! I have heard nothing to suggest there have been any major improvements.

[megilleland]

LOCAL AUTHORITIES (MEMBERS’ ALLOWANCES) (ENGLAND) REGULATIONS 2003 

The following tables are published in accordance with the above Regulations. Herefordshire Council have published Councillors’ allowances annually since 2003, when the above Regulations came into force. The published allowances have been advertised in the local press, publicly available to view on the website, or for inspection at the Council offices at Brockington, since 2003. The tables shows the total sum paid by Herefordshire Council to each Member of the Council.

 

* A Members’ ICT Allowance was introduced in 2011. Members may each claim reimbursement for ICT equipment up to the sum of £1,000.00 during the first three years of the administration. Members may each also claim reimbursement for consumables (eg printer cartridges, paper) up to the sum of £200.00 per year. 

 

It seems that you have to pay a few people a lot of money to tell us that we can't get the grass cut!

[dippyhippy]

Beyond ridiculous.

 

This whole situation has my blood boiling, Megilleland!

 

Roll on next May......

[dippyhippy]

Errr....why does this story appear on the front page as if I started this thread???

 

I am a tad confused!

[flamboyant]

DIPPY I think I started the thread...the tone is certainly me lol 

 

There are some strange things happening on here at the moment, like the Hoople thread suddenly disappearing? One minute it was a hot topic the next minute it disappeared! Mind you maybe that was for the best I was having one of my turns! Where my eyes roll to the back of my head my temperature rises and I start screaming obscenities! I was calculating the amount of money paid to Ameo (the 'new' company set up by Mike Dearing) and my heart was racing so fast I almost keeled over! I can't seem to switch off! How exactly does that work? A company gets huge payments from Herefordshire Council and then suddenly you're a Director of that Company is that even legal? Or is it a case of you scratch my back? Or a coincidence maybe?

 

I certainly commented on the managements' strategy to save money, here's a recap. It's very clever you write a strategy for saving money that includes sacking all the lower paid workers (front line staff) and then give yourself a huge pay rise it's pure genious! Then you work from home, saves a fortune on office space and no one has a clue what you're doing! You honestly couldn't make it up! If you're really clever then you wrangle yourself a brand new house (intended to house the homeless) and the Council subsidise your rent it's a win win!

 

The moral of the story is-

If you want to get ahead get a job with Herefordshire Council. If you're lucky enough to be a senior manager you can orchestrate a wage raise and a subsidised house. Rumour has it 4 members of staff working in the housing team have been allocated a brand new house! 

 

Cllr Powell ask some questions make some noises please find out if any of these rumours are true? Start by asking,which managers received a pay rise this year? Followed by how many members of staff jumped the housing queue? If it's nonsense we'd love to know. Usuallycthough there's no smoke without fire!

[dippyhippy]

Flam, that comment, re the rumour about new houses been allocated to staff.....you need to post that on Bobby's thread....."The things you hear down the pub."

The points you raise, need to be viewed within the context of that thread!!

 

Keep on posting!!

[megilleland]

Just posted a reply on Hereford Times about their article on council tax. I said that this was drawn attention to earlier this year on Hereford Voice highlighting the differences between Westminster and Hereford (see post 15 above) and that I paid £120 a month over a 10 month period. Also the rateable value is used to calculate your water rates if you are not on a meter, so you will be paying more again than those in Westminster. However at least we won't be drinking recycled sewage water.

[flamboyant]

Another great idea from Herefordshire Council!

 

http://www.publictenders.net/node/2553147

 

Really?

[twowheelsgood]

That's from April - but isn't this what we're ploughing millions into Hoople for? Has the left hand ever been introduced to the right hand ffs??

[flamboyant]

TWG the left hand has never been consulted by the right hand, that's the problem! It's a Hugh sum of money set to be spent on yet more IT Software!

 

I couldn't take it in needs Megilleland to tell us what it all means, why exactly do managers need a recruitment software, they're making half the bloody Council redundant!!

[flamboyant]

It's a Hugh sum of money set to be spent on yet more IT Software!

Huge not Hugh!

[Cambo]

Is that right between £3 to £5million excluding vat??!! Man & they can't even afford to cut the grass, or staff children's & adult services properly! the government are getting it all wrong how can they make cuts in one much needed area than spend millions in another none essential one????? It don't make sense yet they'd have us all believe there saving money or thou isn't the deficit up?

[megilleland]

TWG the left hand has never been consulted by the right hand, that's the problem! It's a Hugh sum of money set to be spent on yet more IT Software!

 

I couldn't take it in needs Megilleland to tell us what it all means, why exactly do managers need a recruitment software, they're making half the bloody Council redundant!!

 

No idea Flamboyant, but I imagine there's a section of the software that allows them to print their own contracts and severance agreement and when they get the cheque the paperwork immediately shreds itself.

[flamboyant]

Ha ha! Nice one Megilleland, I knew you'd know! Lol

[flamboyant]

Just discovered where most of the Council Budgets going this year!

 

 

 

http://news.herefordshire.gov.uk/Jobs/Jobs/Results/?Reset=true&jobCategories=Legal

[megilleland]

First published Tuesday 7 October 2014 in Hereford Times Letters

Council tax: What you get for your money

 

THE question ‘What do we get for our council tax?’ was posed by Joan Mason (Letters, September 25) and deserves an answer.

 

Annual costs (approx) are: adult care and wellbeing £70 million, children’s services £43m, transport subsidies £5m, rubbish collection and disposal £14m, road maintenance £10m, income from council tax £81m.

 

You will see from this that council tax – just 25% of our income – does not even cover the cost of adult and child care.

 

Just one child in full-time care costs about £200,000 a year. A ‘band D’ house pays £1,250 per year in council tax so we need 160 band D houses paying council tax to cover the cost of one such child.

 

Add to this street lighting/cleaning, flood defences, staff wages, property maintenance, loan repayments, public health, charity support, inflation and the position is evident.

 

We are not alone. Every council in the country faces the same problem.

 

We get income from council tax, business rates, car parking and government grants (which have been drastically cut).

 

The difference between falling income and rising costs by 2017 will be about £65m. That is why full council agreed last year to make cuts.

 

Annual costs have been reduced by £35m so far. Another £30m has to be found over the next two to three years.

 

Readers know they cannot spend more than their income and neither can the council. The answer is to grow our economy and increase prosperity.

 

So far we have attracted £90m of private investment in the new retail centre, seen huge development in the Enterprise Zone, laid plans for new roads, a by-pass opening up land for houses and businesses, all critical for growth and jobs.

 

Road repairs like the cross in Ledbury are going ahead since we secured extra government money. We have also begun discussions for a new university and our core strategy was submitted to the inspector for approval last week. If anyone has better plans, we haven’t seen them yet.

 

This Conservative administration is committed to the protection of the vulnerable and children, to responsible financial management of your taxes, a willingness to make difficult but unavoidable decisions, concrete plans for economic growth and a vision for the future.

 

TONY JOHNSON Herefordshire Council Leader

 

 

 

The problem is that if you have not got the money why come up with hair brained finance schemes using PFI for incinerators, building roads we can't afford. Cllr Johnson should come round and see my wish list if I win the lottery. Unfortunately most local government authorities seem to use use Ponzi practices to get away with their pipedreams.

 

Ponzi: a swindle in which a quick return, made up of money from new investors, on an initial investment lures the victim into much bigger risks.

 

[flamboyant]

Brilliant Megilleland !

 

Can someone tell me what happens to business rates, it's never mentioned and I have often wondered which pot it goes in?

 

I'm afraid it's untrue to state that the Conservative administration are committed to protecting the vulnerable, when they have demonstrated such contempt to the rights of disabled people. Their response in the Hereford Times that political leaders are not required to know about bullying would contradict that statement! How can you be committed to protecting them when you're not required to know about them! If Cllr Johnson and the Conservatives were concerned about the vulnerable, why are they ignoring the bullying going on right under their noses!