Author Topic: CCBC costs and cutting  (Read 150407 times)

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Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #375 on: March 04, 2020, 10:28:31 am »
I read this story with a smile, until I got to the bit about "consultancy fees" ...........

Council told not to spend £1.5m schools cash on porn or prostitutes
The Welsh Government covered all bases with its rules on what Conwy council could spend the grant on.

"The list of works the money will be used for will be discussed at this evening's education and skills overview and scrutiny committee meeting at the council's Bodlondeb offices.

The big winners are Ysgol Gynradd Glanwydden, Penrhyn Bay , which will get £60,000 for a new roof and Mochdre Infants School which will also get a new roof costing £110,000.

Ysgol Betws Y Coed will receive £100,000 to spend on a new kitchen building and roof.

There will be a contingency fund of more than £380,000 held back for urgent repairs and consultancy fees of £85,000 have been factored in.

Conwy's leader Cllr Sam Rowlands said: "We are grateful for the funding ... and grateful for the clear stipulations on how to spend it."

full article and 22 comments          https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/council-told-not-spend-15m-17855818

Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #376 on: March 05, 2020, 11:01:37 am »
A former leader has told his colleagues their council should ditch its membership of a local authority "union" and save more than £86,000 in annual subscriptions.

Cllr Ronnie Hughes, a former leader of Conwy council , was speaking at a finance scrutiny committee called to discuss the forthcoming year's budgets.

Discussing the budget, he lambasted the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA), which is effectively the union for local authorities and lobbies Welsh Government on their behalf.    cont   https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/86000-havent-given-sausage-council-17861959


Offline Meleri

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #377 on: March 05, 2020, 01:38:28 pm »
At the CCBC full council meeting today it was voted that the Council Tax be set at 4.95%, which equates to about £1 per week rise. It was a very lively debate worth watching on the webcast. Cllr Ronnie Hughes brought up the subject again of the unfair distribution of funding by the Welsh Government & proposed that the CCBC give 12 months notice to resign from the WLGA if they will not act on the unfair way of calculation & that it is not fit for purpose. There is to be an open meeting in the next 2 weeks to meet a representative from WLGA, so Cllr Ronnie's proposal has been put on hold for the time being.

Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #378 on: March 06, 2020, 11:04:26 am »
At the CCBC full council meeting today it was voted that the Council Tax be set at 4.95%, which equates to about £1 per week rise. It was a very lively debate worth watching on the webcast. Cllr Ronnie Hughes brought up the subject again of the unfair distribution of funding by the Welsh Government & proposed that the CCBC give 12 months notice to resign from the WLGA if they will not act on the unfair way of calculation & that it is not fit for purpose. There is to be an open meeting in the next 2 weeks to meet a representative from WLGA, so Cllr Ronnie's proposal has been put on hold for the time being.

Conwy council reports rise in social care costs due to more patients.
A local authority report has revealed that housing an extra 33 older patients in nursing and residential homes cost it an extra £540,000.

The business revenue case report by Conwy council’s director of social care and education was pleading for an extra £850,000 from council coffers to deal with financial pressures.

The department also asked for a further £2,150,000 to cover National Living Wage rises incurred by care providers working to provide council services.  cont..  https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/18283367.conwy-council-reports-rise-social-care-costs-due-patients/

Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #379 on: March 08, 2020, 12:15:17 pm »
Conwy Council’s outstanding loans stood at £177 million at the end of December, figures show.

Borrowing by Conwy Council rose by £7.7 million last year, new figures reveal.

​The Local Government Association says unprecedented ​funding pressures on councils have forced many to borrow in order to protect vital services.

Conwy Council’s outstanding loans stood at £177 million at the end of December, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government figures show.
This was a 5% increase from the same point a year earlier, when it stood at £169.4 million.   cont  https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/18289973.conwy-councils-outstanding-loans-stood-177-million-end-december-figures-show/

Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #380 on: March 19, 2020, 01:05:48 pm »
A council has said it won’t be refunding council tax  payers who paid for garden waste to be removed despite not collecting it for three months.

Cllr Greg Robbins, Conwy council’s lead member for environment said “a change in service doesn’t result in a refund”.

Disgruntled gardeners in the county haven’t had their green waste removed since January – and the service will not resume until the end of this month, when it will cost £30 a year to have your cuttings removed.

Some green-fingered tax payers, angered by a near 5% rise in council tax this year, felt they should have had a partial council tax refund because of the gap in services.

Others said it could cause people to “fly-tip rather than wait”, although residents can take garden waste to local recycling centres and dispose of it free of charge.

In a letter to one constituent Cllr Robbins stood firm on the issue. He said: “Unfortunately the reason for moving to a chargeable garden waste service is that we are having to find ways to continue to deliver our statutory services at reduced levels of funding from central government.

“The garden waste subscription service will contribute around £500,000 of savings, meaning less of the shortfall will need to be raised from Council Tax increases.

“More than half of Councils in England and Wales charge for collection of garden waste, including Gwynedd, Denbighshire and Flintshire.

“There is no evidence from other Councils that fly tipping increases as a result of charging and we did not have problems before we started the service in 2007. ref Pioneer




     

Offline DVT

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #381 on: March 19, 2020, 04:32:42 pm »
I wonder how much the Council will save by charging for garden waste to be removed.  I paid, and yesterday received a large brown bin which cost about the same as my payment (having googled to find out the price of such an item) so that's no money made from me for this year.

But they will (or should be) collecting a number of times during the year, so that expense will be incurred.

But one thing I did notice that only 3 bins were delivered to the houses in my road, yet there are 16 houses.  So on that basis only about 20% of the local residents have taken up up the "offer".

Must fit a lock on my bin, to ensure no-one else puts their grass cuttings in there!

Offline Hugo

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #382 on: March 19, 2020, 06:19:26 pm »
It could be that the other residents have ordered the bins but haven't had them delivered yet.  I've paid for mine as has my neighbour but  we are still awaiting delivery of the bins
At the moment I have six green bags full of grass cuttings but that's far too much to go in one brown bin. So the rest will have to go to the Mochdre depot although I am tempted to put it in the black bin instead

Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBCouncil
« Reply #383 on: March 20, 2020, 03:50:25 pm »
The leader of a council will make delegated decisions on council matters for the foreseeable future because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Conwy council’s top elected official, councillor Sam Rowlands, is expected to be handed the emergency powers at next week’s cabinet meeting.
The agenda for the forum on Tuesday, March 24, allows for him to “determine any issue which would have otherwise come to a Cabinet meeting for a decision”.

Normal council reports will still be circulated to council members five days before any decision and cabinet members will still be consulted via email.
Members will be invited to submit comments via email direct to the leader and all decisions “subject to normal urgency and other exemption from call in provisions” will be able to be “called in”.

This means a minimum of three councillors can ask for any decision to be re-examined by Cabinet within five days of the relevant cabinet minutes being published.

The decision means Conwy will not hold any public meetings until restrictions on public gatherings are lifted.

Cllr Rowlands said: “The decisions will still be made public and there will be opportunities for those decisions to be called-in.“It’s about dealing with things quickly and not having groups of people being in the same room.
“Every council in Wales will be doing something similar. Reports will still have to be produced five days in advance as usual.”

The constitution of the council does allow for such extreme measures and it is likely that the situation will continue for at least the next two months.”

Cllr Brian Cossey, Welsh Liberal Democrat member for Colwyn ward, said he could understand the decision.
He said: “It’s quite a reasonable step to take because it’s going to be very difficult to have any meetings.

“I think it’s OK as long as we are kept fully informed and we can make representations to the leader.
“If we don’t like the decisions being made there’s always the calling in procedure.”
He added: “It’s quite an unusual situation. I’ve seen nothing like this in my lifetime.” ref Pioneer
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Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #384 on: May 23, 2020, 10:07:11 am »
48 transport projects around Wales given multi-million funding
The cash will be used for projects around Wales including bus stops and 20mph zones
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/politics/transport-grants-bus-funding-metro-18297646

Conwy             Local Transport Fund

North Wales Metro – Llandudno congestion improvements - £168,700

North Wales Metro – Abergele town centre congestion improvements scheme development - £20,000

North Wales Metro – Traffic congestion relief scheme at Towyn (A548 Tir Prince Access) - £213,000

North Wales Metro – Conwy IRT pilot - £280,000

North Wales Metro – Old Colwyn splash point - £286,500

Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #385 on: August 28, 2020, 04:33:40 pm »
A county councillor said a 7.9 per cent pay rise over seven years “summed up how they value my services” after it emerged MPs and MS’s had received much bigger increases.

The comment came during a meeting of the democratic services committee meeting held by Conwy county council.

 “Why should Councillors enjoy a pay–rise when the rest of the public sector has a pay-cap?"
“The economic fallout that will ensue from the Coronavirus pandemic will be devastating with thousands set to lose their jobs.
“This is not the time to reward ourselves with a pay rise."

Cllr Harry Saville (Llandudno Gogarth) also rejected the idea of an increase in the basic allowance for councillors, also deputy mayor of Llandudno, asked for his vote against the rise to be placed on the record.

Full story   https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/18683661.conwy-councillors-7-9-per-cent-pay-rise-7-years-mss-mps/

Offline Fester

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #386 on: August 28, 2020, 10:01:45 pm »
Rather than give MPs, AMs or councillors a pay rise..... can’t we just clap for them instead?
Fester...
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Offline Hugo

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #387 on: August 28, 2020, 10:59:07 pm »
You're right Fester, they all deserve the clap              clappinghappy

Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC .......Conwy Labour group upheaval
« Reply #388 on: October 16, 2020, 01:32:01 pm »
Conwy Labour group upheaval see cash rows and two long-serving councillors quit.

Two Conwy long-serving county councillors have quit Labour’s cohort within the authority after their group leader ousted a colleague from a committee chair.

Tudno ward member cllr Ronnie Hughes, a former leader of the council and a Labour stalwart, said he’d “never been in this position before in 30-odd years of being a councillor”.

Cllr Mike Priestley, who represents Marl ward, also left the group over the “unrest” surrounding the nomination for chairman of the council’s social care and health scrutiny committee. But he says he remains committed to the Welsh Labour Party.

Full details   https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/18799660.conwy-labour-group-upheaval-see-cash-rows-two-long-serving-councillors-quit/

Offline Meleri

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #389 on: October 17, 2020, 04:35:53 pm »
This only goes to prove party politics has no place in local government, they should all be Independent. Local government has to be answerable to local people & work together for the good of those residents. To be 100% committed to working for local residents, as one of these Councillors mentions in the article, this petty politics & in fighting in CCBC must be stopped.