31 July - Wasting time. Wasting money
Following
comments made here a couple of days ago, Dimitri gave me chapter and verse
on the police investigation into the so-easily-could-have-been-fatal hammer attack on his house. He seems to be happy
enough with the limited progress made so far although I cannot quite get my head
around the sense of scheduling the request for CCTV images from nearby commercial premises
for next Friday. That’s more than
three weeks after
the crime was committed.
The hammer attack got in the way of Dimitri attending the last Full Council meeting
and he was unable to
pose his question about Council Tax. A simple one-liner. “Why does a Bexley
household in Council Tax Band D pay over £200 more than a similar household in Greenwich or Bromley?”
The written answer is now available. What is it? We get a far smaller grant than
Greenwich and we waste far too much money on covering up for our mismanagement? (Two
months now not to get
around to answering my Wilkinson complaint so far.)
Not quite right.
The grant which was wrong when the Labour Government set the formula 15 years ago is even more out of
date now but it was rather lame of the Leader to point out that Sutton, Havering, Richmond and Kingston all have
higher tax rates. “We are bad but not quite the worst” doesn’t quite cut it.
It was noted that in 2002 the Council Tax in Bexley was below the Outer
London average but by 2006, after a spell of Labour control, Bexley’s tax
rate was above average. The official response included; Labour raised the tax rate by 34% in four years
excluding the GLA precept while the Conservatives have managed 64% in 18 years.
There is no explanation of what sort of state we would be in if Labour had not
raised so much extra money 20 years ago. No difference at all I would guess.
What will Council Tax rates rise to once Rachel Reeves Queen of Thieves sticks her expensive oar in?