What do you get for that apart from roads and rubbish?
A lot, truly a lot. One of the great difficulties in relation to this is people only see the "bad" stuff. Our roads are in an appalling state and this is what people notice, quite understandably. What many fail to do, and I guess one needs a reason to want to do this, is to understand the breakdown of council tax and in particular the services that a local authority has a statutory obligation to deliver.
My interest comes from the fact my son is Downs and Lancashire CC has a statutory obligation to provide his care. The financial implications are significant to both the LA and the individual. I will leave it there unless anyone wants the full version. A friend of mine once described me, jokingly, as to the left of Lenin.............possibly that brings me round to the right?? (This is a JOKE - mods). Since 2000 central government (Labour and Tory) funding to local authorities has reduced by at least 60p in the £1 at the same time council tax increases are capped at 5%. I feel the problem is obvious. In sufficient funding to provide services
To fulfil it's statutory obligations the LA has to find cost savings. The longterm consequence of this is everything gets cut. Those unable to support themselves, my son, are expected to contribute to their care. My lad lives on benefits yet has to pay Lancashire CC £500 per month towards the care LCC has a statutory obligation to provide. This was introduced by Blair/Brown, just to demonstrate I'll kick red and blue.
The situation we have now is once the LA has cut everything to the bone there is little more to do other than to introduce charges for waste collection, close libraries, shut down leisure centres, etc Roads are sh1t because there is no money to pay for their repair. I Lancashire some 20% of our roads are forecast to reach "end of life" in 15 years!
The electorate/populace chooses to vote for a low tax economy. The end result is roads that are falling apart, and that sadly is all people see.