Tendring Topics – on Line
'Green' Tendring
A few weeks ago I said in this column that, with one or two reservations, I thought that Tendring Council deserved congratulations on the success of their service for the collection of recyclable waste. It seems that I am not alone in this assessment.
Figures recently released reveal that the authority in Essex with the best recycling record over the past year was Braintree, which recycled 23.4 per cent of its refuse, with Tendring second at 22.9 per cent. We certainly did a lot better than our county town of Chelmsford where only 16.2 per cent was recycled, or neighbouring Colchester (once leaders in the field) whose figure was 18.5 per cent.
Worst authority in the south-east was Dover with a mere 11.7 per cent and the best was Chichester with 32.6 per cent.
Congratulations to Chichester – though I have to say that I had never hitherto thought of that historic Sussex town as being in the south-east. I suppose it all depends on where one is standing. I once recall hearing two Geordies from Newscastle indignantly disputing Mancunians' right to describe themselves as being from 'oop North'!
I think that our Council could overtake Braintree and, who knows, perhaps catch up with Chichester, if they were to adopt my two suggestions, made in this blog a few weeks ago, of adding glass bottles and jars to their weekly collection – and targeting those householders who, week after week, put out several black bags for collection; but never a green box or a clear plastic sack.
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Up go Prices – Pensions way behind!
I pay all my regular bills by direct debit. That way, I can't fall deeply into debt as a result of forgetfulness, and my bills get paid even if I'm ill or absent from home at the time that payment is due. It is a facility that I greatly appreciate and – at this time of the year - I also appreciate the fact that the Council collects its Council Tax in ten instalments rather than twelve. Freedom from Council Tax in February and March is always very welcome!
From time to time, of course, the monthly direct debit payments are increased or, just occasionally, decreased according to circumstances.
My water payments, my payments for gas and electricity, and my payments for my phone and internet connection have all recently been increased well above the level of inflation. I awaited my Council Tax assessment with a certain amount of apprehension
When it arrived I read it with some relief. I live in a modest bungalow in what I once heard described in Tendring's Council Chamber as 'a working class residential area'. My council 'tax band' reflects that, and I learn that my monthly payments for the next financial year will rise modestly from £77 to £81 (this does, of course, include a 'single person discount'). Well, it's an increase above the notional level of inflation – but certainly not so dramatically above it as those for water, energy and phone-and-internet.
I am, I have no doubt, partly responsible for some of these latter increases myself. I don't stint on the use of water. I keep my home (which is well insulated) comfortably warm day and night, and I don't pause and think every time I want to use the phone or access the internet. Also, I suspect that my iron horse (mobility scooter) whose battery feeds on electricity every night, has a hearty appetite for it!
I shall, I think, manage to accommodate these increases in my cost of living without too much discomfort – but then I am one of the 'lucky ones', enjoying not only a state retirement pension, that will go up by a few pounds next month, but also a modest, but index linked, pension for which I paid 6 per cent of my salary throughout my forty years in the local government service. There are also a few perks for which veteran octogenarians like myself qualify – an increased winter fuel allowance for instance, and a free passport for those of us still capable of overseas travel.
Many others are not so fortunate as I am. It is sometimes overlooked too that those 'inflation linked' benefits, both of the state and of any private pension, are always paid at least a year late. The not-very-generous rises in our pensions that we shall get next month were determined by the level of inflation last September, and the rises that we are currently experiencing in food, petrol, electricity, gas and the council tax won't be recognised till next September. It will be over a year from now before our pensions reflect the effect of current price increases – and goodness knows what further increases in living costs may arise before then!
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'That's the way the money goes!'
Tendring District Council sends out the Council Tax bills. Tendring District Council collects the money and Tendring District Council has to prosecute those who refuse to pay. But Tendring District Council spends only a tiny proportion of the sum collected. That was a message that, between 1974 and 1980, when I was the council's first Public Relations Officer I tried over and over again to impress on Tendring residents.
I doubt if I had much effect. When bills go up the instinctive human reaction is to blame whoever has sent them out.
In the literature that comes with the Council Tax Bill (which I suspect many householders consign instantly to the waste bin) is a diagram that makes it clear that of every pound that is collected in Council Tax, just 10p goes to Tendring District Council, 9p to the Police Authority, 4p to the Fire Authority, 2p to parish and town councils, and the remaining 75p to Essex County Council who provide the really expensive services like Social Services, Education, Refuse Disposal (as distinct from collection), provision and maintenance of highways, public libraries and so on.
Of the £81 that I shall be paying every month from April through to January of next year, only just over £8 will be destined for the Tendring District Council.
I don't really think that that would be bad value for money even if they did no more than remove my rubbish and my recyclables every week, keep the streets clean, provide public conveniences and make sure that the food I buy in restaurants, pubs, shops and supermarkets is safe for me to eat. They do, of course, a good deal more than that.
Yes, I am well aware that most of local government finance comes in grants from central government – but I reckon that keeping local democracy ticking over is one of the least harmful things that central government does with our money.
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European Referendum
It is really no great surprise that the House of Commons has rejected the idea of a referendum on the subject of the ratification of the new European Treaty. No British government, with a comfortable majority and firm control over most of its MPs, will ever permit a referendum that they think it very likely they would lose.
Nor was it any great surprise to me that, in doing so, they broke a promise that many people consider they had made. Remember – just a few years ago – how they promised that they would only take part in the invasion of Iraq with United Nations' authorisation . That was when they imagined that a comfortable majority of UN members could be persuaded, by one means or another, to 'toe the line'. When it became abundantly clear that they couldn't, they quite suddenly realized that they 'already had that authorisation'; how very convenient!
Not that I think that the ratification of the Treaty will make any discernible difference to most of us. Failure to ratify would merely result in the EU becoming steadily more cumbersome and expensive to operate. But perhaps that's what many Europhobes would like. It would provide them with another stick with which to beat the idea of a united Europe.
I'd like to see a referendum on whether or not we should renew our Trident missile programme. This is not an issue that is very likely to affect, except financially, the present generation (already the next-but one after mine!), but it could be a matter of life or death to tens of thousands of this generation's grandchildren.
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