A measured response - by Richard... Tuesday, October 11, 2011

A measured response - by Richard... Tuesday, October 11, 2011

As the survey of Council Tax summons and liability order costs continues apace, illustrated (left) is the sort of response we are getting – this one from Ashfield District Council.

You will note that they have very helpfully appended my question to the response letter (click to expand), and then the answer below. But if you compare the two, you will find that the answer is incomplete. They have not given us the total fees charged, as requested.

You might think that you could simply multiply the number of summonses by the fees charged, but that does not give an accurate sum. In many instances, multiple summonses are sent to single householders, as partners and those with shared mortgages are jointly and severally liable. But only one fee is raised per household. Thus, we have to have the totals from the local authority.

What is interesting is that all the recent replies have made the same "mistake" and in each case we have to go back to the authority and ask again for the information. In the case of Birmingham, we've been back three times, and still haven't got the information requested.

However, an interesting element to emerge from Ashfield is the amount by which the combined fees have gone up. In 2003/4 they were £25.00. Now, they are £70.00. According to the Bank of England's inflation calculator, if the fees had been adjusted solely to add in inflation, they would currently stand at £30.82.

Thus, even if costs had been recovered on the basis of what was "reasonably incurred" in 2003, this cannot be the case now. By their own measured response, Ashfield are admitting to a near-£40 illegal profit on each set of documentation. It is no wonder that it and other local authorities are proving so reluctant to provide the information we are requesting. They have a lot to hide, and a lot to answer for.

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Even the Greens don't believe it - by Richard...

The irony is almost too delicious to bear, as Britain's premier Green Party lairage buys in gritters to deal with the coming winter.

One just so much loves the idea of the Greens purchasing a fleet of 4x4s, after the local authority received nearly 4,000 complaints about gritting in 2009/10. A report produced by the council said the public mood was "angry, vitriolic and even venomous". Eat your heart out Caroline.

No longer green, in failing to stick up for their principles, one might even consider them yellow – except for the sad truth that even the Greens don't believe in global warming any more.

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Getting the point - by Richard...

Ross Clark has seen the point - that council charges are side-stepping the cap on Council Tax. He adds some useful colour and detail, but he and the MSM have a lot of catching up to do. They haven't yet latched on to the scale of the looting, much less the illegality.

But then, you can only expect so much of sleb writers. The fact is, though, that they are trailing in the wake of their own commenters, and have read neither this blog nor the Booker column - which would have strengthened the story immensely.

But at least they have noticed something amiss, which is more that the politicians and the ra-rah Tory sites have done. I suppose they are waiting for the brilliant Carswell and Myrtle show to tell them what to think.



There is no sign of the "groundbreaking" TaxPayers' Alliance either. Still, they have just discovered "Europe", so their little brains have probably overheated. But they're sooooooooooo in touch with public opinion, says Timmy (above), so they'll get round to discovering this issue in due course. Then we can all stand round and applaud their brilliant brilliance for noticing it months after everyone else.

Meanwhile, in the real world, you only have to read the comments of real people to realise how serious this issue is. But then, if you are above the line, you don't deal with grubby little oiks and real-world issues. One is so important that such matters cannot be allowed to tarnish one's brilliance.

What these precious little above-the-liners don't even begin to understand, though, is how close to the edge some people already are, as the predatory bailiffs gather for their prey, keeping the money flowing to top up the salaries and pensions.

Nor do they realise that the state police have become a revenue protection agency, their first concern to gather income, which comes well before any duty to fight crime or protect people and their property. The plods are now the main threat to our safety and prosperity.

Still with our money, councils are happy to throw huge sums at vanity projects and green insanity, such as here, with Hull city council throwing £10 million at capital projects such as a scheme to kick-start wind turbine manufacture – money which goes straight into the pockets of German-owned Siemens.

Any idea that councils have any duty to provide services, such as schools, for which we pay them, has long gone out of the window, with this couple being told to teach their own child, because there was no place for her in the local school.

The only inventiveness we see coming from local government is more and more ingenuity in devising ways of extorting money, with road charging and tolls back on the agenda. And, as always, there are the old favourites, ripping off the motorist with more and more parking charges.

This is the developed world, though, where we roll over and whinge. They seem to have a better handle on it in Lahore, where two motorway policemen were beaten bloody by a gang of lawyers at the Lahore High Court (LHC), because they had ticketed a lawyer for speeding. Now there is true localism for you.