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TaxPayers' Alliance Bulletin - 17 June 2011 - Bin collections - Royal Mail's surplus staff - Splitting up the banks - Grassroots - Ben Nevis - Best of the Blogs Bin collections In opposition, the Conservatives said councils should pick up rubbish every week, but since they've come to power in coalition 13 more councils have actually switched from weekly to fortnightly collections. The Waste Review unveiled this week suggested the Government might U-turn on this issue. Council Tax has almost doubled over the last decade but more and more taxpayers are seeing this key service cut. Many residents do not use the vast array of other ‘services’ that councils now provide so that makes fortnightly collections particularly difficult to accept, with many taxpayers paying over £100 a month for little more than rubbish collection. Read a blog by our Policy Analyst, Chris Daniel, on this issue here. These decisions are being foisted onto councils from Brussels. It isn’t localist to demand councils switch to weekly collections if their residents don’t want to, but it’s even less localist for Eurocrats to dictate waste management policy by threatening fines that lead to prohibitive taxes, which (according to the IFS) far outweigh the social costs landfill causes in the first place. We think that weekly collections are a reasonable standard to expect given the high levels of Council Tax but taxpayers should decide that, not faceless bureaucrats in Brussels. Our Director, Matthew Sinclair, appeared on the BBC News Channel (see below), BBC Two's Daily Politics, Sky News, and Todayon BBC Radio 4. Campaign Director Emma Boon appeared on more than a dozen BBC regional radio stations too. Royal Mail's surplus staff We released new research this week into so-called 'surplus' staff at Royal Mail (pictured is the article from the Sun). After a tip-off from a supporter, we submitted a Freedom of Information request, and discovered that last year 287 employees were languishing in a ‘surplus pool’, potentially costing taxpayers over £8 million a year. The previous year the figure was even higher, with 458 employees on the payroll with no official job title, potentially costing taxpayers almost £13 million that year. You can read the full report and see the original FOI responses here. The staff were put into this surplus pool after restructuring left them with no specific role. At least two members of staff were surplus for almost six years. Another 53 employees were surplus for nearly two years. Our report came just a day after £120 million of losses were announced and Royal Mail's chief executive, Moya Greene, said radical change was needed for the group to survive. Our director, Matthew Sinclair, criticised the waste of money that the surplus staff represent: “It beggars belief that so many staff are being kept on the payroll when there clearly isn’t a role for them. This is yet more evidence that Royal Mail bosses are yet to face up to the devastating situation the group’s finances are in. Taxpayers cannot afford to continue to keep paying the wages of surplus employees.” Splitting up the banks There's been a fresh announcement on banking reform from Chancellor Osborne. In a speech earlier this week he announced big changes are planned to the way banks do business. It will see banks' retail and investment arms separated. That is proposed in response to the fiscal crisis, but if the Government aren't careful this could actually be unhelpful. The idea is to protect the public from another financial crisis, so that ordinary customers' savings are not put at risk if investment operations suffer heavy losses. However, this blog explains why splitting up the banks might not be the best solution. Matthew Sinclair also argued that Osborne needs to do more to safeguard taxpayers from another bank bailout on ITV News (pictured). You can watch that here. If you are interested in this topic you might also be interested in UK Inquiry. It's a new, non- partisan group campaigning for an independent inquiry into the Economic Crisis in the UK. Find out more about them here. Grassroots The Freedom Festival in Hull has been an annual event for the last three years. It attracts thousands of visitors to the city who want to hear the latest music acts and watch street theatre. Unfortunately, taxpayers have had to pick up the vast majority of the bill! Our National Grassroots Coordinator, Andrew Allison, has been campaigning locally for more private sponsorship (see this article from last year), and the city council has recently announced that it will be doing just that for the event next year. As Andrew said in a letter to the Hull Daily Mail this week: "It is only right that those businesses who benefit should make a contribution... It is in the interests of everyone in the city that Hull is seen as a place to visit, and everyone needs to play their part." Andrew will keep pushing this issue, as last year taxpayers stumped up almost £500k to fund this event. At a time of reining in spending, costs like these cannot be justified. Ben Nevis You might have heard about our sister organisation Big Brother Watch, a civil liberties campaign group. This weekend researcher Frank Manning is taking on Ben Nevis. We thought it fitting that he is tackling this peak in the same week that the TPA's own Research Director, John O'Connell, highlighted that the mountain of unanswered mail that HMRC has yet to respond to is higher than Ben Nevis, tallest mountain in the UK! Frank is scaling Ben Nevis in aid of the Fostering Network, who campaign across the UK to improve foster care for children who are fostered and the families who care for them. If you'd like to support Frank's charity climb you can do so by donating through the Just Giving website. Best of the Blogs Burning Our Money: Why are we giving aid to countries supporting Argentina’s threat to our sovereignty in the Falklands - Matthew Sinclair asks why we are sending millions of pounds in aid to countries backing Argentina over the Falklands Campaigns: Surrey County Council get the latest toy - Surrey County Council get a rubbish new toy, at your expense, and then brag about it Burning Our Money: Non-job of the week - This week's non-jobs: 'enabling participation' and 'encouraging positive choice' Grassroots: No sense of priority in county hall - Norfolk County Council excruciatingly justify spending thousands on a party for their chairman on the grounds that it’ll get them invites to future parties 2020 Tax Commission: A Ben Nevis of mail - Outstanding mail at HMRC stands taller than Ben Nevis. It's down to our overly complex tax system, says John O'Connell Better Government: How many directors do councils need? - Why did Portsmouth city council need six strategic directors?