Council Tax

My Local council tax for 2019 and the reason

A 5% rise in council tax bills from April after councillors approved the budget for the forthcoming year.

The increase is due to government cuts, according to the Conservative group and will mean the average band D home will pay an additional £68.02 over the year.

The increase is due to government cuts that have reduced the amount the Treasury gives councils to run local services, says the ruling Conservative group.

 

Haven't received our notice yet.

 

Our notice has just come in. It's a 6% increase but a lot of that is going towards more police officers - as did last year's increase. Last year's increase in front line police officers was 150 and another 172 scheduled for this year.

Same for us.

The Fire Service also are receiving an increase in their budget.

These were both increased after a survey to householders where 73% (of those who responded ) asked for it.

 

I'm, wrongly, in Band G. On individual property values (1991) I should be borderline Band E/F but all the properties around me had extended their size prior to the 1991 valuation and ended in Band G. I appealed my valuation and they said that although my property was of lesser value they can only value, as a whole, the section of road I'm in. I was advised by an expert (a friend) that a further appeal would cost me and I was unlikely to win.

 

I'd like to know what the hell I am paying so much money out for! Pennies under £2000 now, and I have just had a look at the costs to get rid of some garden rubbish - stuff left over from the patio and shed works, such as old paving slabs, bricks and a broken old concrete fence post. £4 a bag (max 50cm x 77cm) of soil, £4 for EACH paving slab which will presumably apply to the large brick things I have too. And they wonder why things get fly-tipped?

I am going to lose the soil, and as many of the bricks as I can, up behind the fir trees (what the eye doesn't see and all that), and the left over slabs will simply get stacked somewhere out of the way where they can remain.

And to cap it off, the roads are in a terrible state, the street lighting is only on one side of the street and gets dimmed right down at night, and the local schools are in disrepair. Someone is trousering a lot of money, and it is not being spent on public services.