Author Topic: CCBC costs and cutting  (Read 268326 times)

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Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting....... More BS
« Reply #675 on: December 19, 2024, 02:39:39 pm »
Conwy County Council, which has a plush new £58m building in the town centre, is facing a £31 million black hole in its budget. A council intent on stopping locals and visitors spending a penny by shutting half of its public toilets to save money has been slammed for advertising for a £45K-a-year diversity manager.................https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1990606/council-diversity-job-toilets


The creation of the new diversity, equity and inclusion manager position comes as the authority faces significant backlash over its decision to close numerous public facilities.
https://www.gbnews.com/news/wales-news-conwy-county-council-diversity-manager-public-toilets

Online Hugo

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #676 on: January 07, 2025, 10:28:13 pm »
Council to sell public toilets on the open market and they could even become homes
Conwy Council will pay £50,000 to decommission 19 of its 40 public conveniences

Could this be a loo with a view?
Cllr Doleman then referred to media reports of people turning former public toilets into homes. In March last year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported how a resident applied to Denbighshire County Council to convert the former public convenience on Dyserth High Street into a home.


https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/council-sell-public-toilets-open-30728107


Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #677 on: January 15, 2025, 11:58:24 am »
Councillors in Wales set to get £1,000 salary increase

Leaders of the biggest authorities should receive more than £4,000 extra a year, it has been suggested

Councillors and council leaders across Wales will get a salary rise under plans. An independent panel assess pay on an annual basis.

The independent panel's recommendations for 2025-26 say the basic salary would become £19,771. It is a sum paid to all elected members, for their role as a councillor and is based on a full time equivalent of three days a week. Last year, it was £18,666 a year.

cont https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/councillors-wales-set-1000-salary-30778678?IYA-reg=49560bcd-5a9c-47f0-8fc5-ba2e71710589


Online Hugo

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #678 on: January 15, 2025, 01:24:48 pm »
There is another whammy coming 
How much council tax is set to go up by in every part of Wales
Councils had more money than they expected in their grant from the Welsh Government but they say it isn't enough

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/how-much-council-tax-set-30777835

Offline norman08

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #679 on: January 15, 2025, 01:58:31 pm »
One councillor I know admits he does one day a week council things he also has another full time job,   It’s all well and good an independent body suggesting a certain pay award. But if the company don’t have the money to pay it how can they expect to get it. When the company I worked for hadn’t made enough we didn’t get a pay rise. So why should councillors have the cheek to vote on how much the CT goes up just so they can have a rise.  😤😡

Online Hugo

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #680 on: January 16, 2025, 07:26:17 am »
Denbighshire in Top Five in Wales for Additional Affordable Housing Units Delivered Per 10,000 Households
I wonder where Conwy features on this list?      Perhaps it's time that all houses should be affordable?


https://ct.moreover.com/?a=55779925692&p=14e&v=1&x=rfymB6n0ztal5Q_f-E8Ggg&u1=ND&u2=up-urn:user:PA187552270

Offline Dave

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #681 on: January 16, 2025, 09:38:21 am »
We recently put our house where we have lived for 38 years up for sale. I guess I should have paid more attention but the information about council tax rates on other properties isn't that easy to find until you start searching the internet and Rightmove. Our house was elevated to a higher band in 2003 when there was last a revaluation done and I didn't notice!! You don't pay attention to the fine details when you are working, you don't always have the time.
Anyway, I have decided it was time to put in a revaluation claim but to do so you have to supply details of at least three similar houses within a close distance of your own property with evidence  of the price they sold for within 6 months of the revaluation date 22 years ago.
Near impossible and they know it ! If you can find three similar properties which isn't always possible, finding sale prices is.
To be honest I'm happy paying what I do but when I see houses that are much bigger and more expensive paying less....and there are lots of them..... I do think it's time the council looked at another revaluation. That might help the coffers considerably. However, if that would stop them from spending the money irresponsibly is a totally different matter.

As an aside, I know there are major political divisions on the forum but with hindsight didn't the poll tax idea have a lot of merit? Yes you get a 25% council tax reduction for single occupancy ( why?) but pay no premium when there are four or five earning adults living in the same house?

Online Hugo

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #682 on: January 16, 2025, 10:27:48 am »
Dave,  I have to agree with everything you have said,  it all makes common sense.    Even the Poll Tax would have been fair, although not easily enforceable unlike Council Tax
For example water rates,  you can use as much as you like such as washing the car,  watering the garden etc etc so long as you don't have a water meter, then you have to pay for what you use.   Perhaps it's time that all houses, new and old had to have a water meter installed to make the system fairer
My situation is very similar to yours, even to the fact that I have lived in my home for 38 years.
About 2005 the Inland Revenue Valuation Office rebanded my house from F to G without any notice.    That office then sent a Valuation Officer to look at my house and he was quite unpleasant to my wife and fortunately for him I was out at work.   I made an appeal against the revaluatuon and the procedure is not easy as you have found out to your cost
Anyway I phoned the Valuation Office up and spoke to the person who called at my house and when I asked to have a meeting with him at his office which at the time was only 100 yards away from my office he refused my request
Instead he said that he would call again at my house and have another look inside it and at that point I said to him that if he sets one foot inside my property I would physically throw him out.
Anyway after I supplied more details of the property to the Valuation Office my Tax banding was returned back to F

The system is grossly unfair and I have every sympathy with you on what you are having to go through.     The Wales Office is considering a new revaluation although they had one in 2003 and that may be fair,  but only if England has one as England have avoided having one in the past for whatever reason

Offline Dave

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #683 on: January 16, 2025, 01:34:15 pm »
The circumstances are REALLY similar then. We are an ex F now a G since 2003. 150+ year old property with 3 bedrooms. I should have made an appeal back then....I have since paid the equivalent of £20K extra!!

Offline DaveR

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #684 on: January 17, 2025, 03:14:21 pm »
with hindsight didn't the poll tax idea have a lot of merit? Yes you get a 25% council tax reduction for single occupancy ( why?) but pay no premium when there are four or five earning adults living in the same house?

You're right, the Poll Tax had a lot of merit, as people use public services, rather than houses. Unfortunately, the idea that everyone should contribute to a lesser/greater degree to the public services that they receive was not universally popular. I'd like to see council tax scrapped and the monies raised replaced via income tax/VAT instead.We need a fundamental reform of the taxation/benefits system in this country, as the simple fact is too few people are contributing to the system, rather than taking.

Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting...........‘Welsh Government, give us more money’
« Reply #685 on: January 24, 2025, 12:42:34 pm »
Conwy’s finance scrutiny committee voted in favour of writing to Welsh Government to question the way local authorities are funded.

At the finance and resources overview and scrutiny committee meeting at Bodlondeb this week, Conwy councillors were debating a report on the financial sustainability of Conwy and local government.

The purpose of the report was to provide the committee with the Financial Sustainability reports, both locally and nationally, from Audit Wales.

But the “local report” made a recommendation suggesting councils needed to make more savings.

cont https://www.denbighshirefreepress.co.uk/news/24882105.conwy-welsh-government-give-us-money/?ref=rss&IYA-reg=49560bcd-5a9c-47f0-8fc5-ba2e71710589


Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC .....Welsh language job requirements
« Reply #686 on: February 10, 2025, 12:36:01 pm »
A councillor has said non-Welsh speakers are being forced to leave their hometowns in order to get jobs. Cllr Louise Emery expressed concerns that some policies promoting the Welsh language are not inclusive to the non-Welsh speaking population of Conwy.

Speaking at a finance and resources overview and scrutiny committee this week, Cllr Emery raised her concerns during a discussion on the council's corporate plan and matters relating to the wellbeing of the population. She referred to earlier conversations about how the council could lower Conwy’s age demographic by encouraging university leavers to return to the county after completing their studies.

But she expressed her belief that current policies were not "inclusive" as the Welsh language was deemed essential for many public sector jobs, including teaching, excluding some of those who live on the coast, where there's generally a lower proportion of Welsh speakers. According to a Welsh census conducted in 2021, around 17.8% of the population of Wales speaks Welsh, with this figure being around 25% in Conwy............

cont https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/welsh-language-job-requirements-mean-30952379?IYA-reg=49560bcd-5a9c-47f0-8fc5-ba2e71710589

Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting...........43 Conwy play areas improved
« Reply #687 on: February 13, 2025, 12:25:30 pm »
IMPROVEMENTS have been made to nearly a third of play areas in Conwy County, with new surfacing and play equipment.


43 play areas in Conwy County have had a revamp, thanks to funding from the UKSPF Conwy Community Regeneration Key Fund, part of the UK Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).

Improvement work has included laying 2,600 square metres of replacement safety surfacing, improving drainage, replacing gates, and repainting and line marking at 14 multi use games areas (MUGAs)................... https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/24930124.43-conwy-play-areas-improved-thanks-government-funding/?ref=rss&IYA-reg=49560bcd-5a9c-47f0-8fc5-ba2e71710589


Offline SteveH

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Re: CCBC costs and cutting
« Reply #688 on: February 18, 2025, 11:47:39 am »
Conwy Council is unable to count the cost of making its school staff redundant with more job losses on the horizon, a committee heard. Conwy ’s finance and resources overview and scrutiny committee today (Monday) heard how the council will face added, unknown costs because schools are having to make more redundancies.

Despite Conwy opting not to cut school budgets again for the next financial year in 2025-26, as they have for the last two consecutive years, “a number of schools” will still “have to make redundancies” to balance their budgets. The debate took place whilst discussing the revenue budget for 2024/25 and the quarter-three monitoring report............... https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/conwy-council-cant-count-substantial-31022753?IYA-reg=49560bcd-5a9c-47f0-8fc5-ba2e71710589

Offline SteveH

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Re: Reform UK candidate wins Llandudno Town Council by-election
« Reply #689 on: February 21, 2025, 11:18:05 am »
A REFORM UK candidate has won the by-election for Llandudno Mostyn Ward after the seat was vacated.

Jackie Thurley won yesterday's by-election, fending off Independent candidate Francis Davies and Conservative Rodney Davies in a closely-fought contest.

According to Reform UK Bangor Aberconwy, there was a 15 per cent turnout with 400 votes.

Jackie Thurley gained 145 votes, with Francis Davies and Rodney Davies on 129 and 126 respectively.

Ms Thurley will join Labour's David J Hawkins and Mandy Hawkins and Independent Janet Jones as the ward's representatives on the town council.

A spokesperson for Reform UK Bangor Aberconwy said: "We narrowly won the Llandudno Mostyn Ward Town Council by-election.

"Congratulations to Councillor Jackie Thurley and a huge thank you to everyone who voted for us!"........pioneer