Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
*** DDC Information ***
Dover District Council has confirmed Council Tax for the district at its meeting on 3 March. The average total bill for a Band D property in the district is going up by 2.34%.
The average total bill for a Band D property in Dover District for 10/11 will be £1,458.93, an increase of £33.40.
The total bill includes the element of Council Tax for Kent County Council (£1,047.78), Dover District Council (£158.94), Kent Police Authority (£138.68), Kent Fire and Rescue Service (£67.95), and an average for Town and Parish Councils of £45.58.
The element of Council Tax for DDC is increasing by 2.5%, a rise of £3.87 per year, or 7 pence per week, for Band D properties.
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Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
Well done for posting this PaulB.
I was going to, but you beat me to it.
The (DDC) rates then are going up by 2.5% so they've been able to keep them low.
I know in these times when money is tight, it's difficult to afford increases, but if DDC were allowed to, would people be happy to pay more for increased services ?
Roger
No Roger, I wouldn't pay more as I believe DDC/KCC gets too much already. Perhaps someone can explain why the increase is above the level of inflation?
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
I believe that some large contracts have inflation built into them, income in areas like parking and planning are down in the recession, money coming back from government is lower, fuel costs seem to constantly rise.....
Been nice knowing you :)
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Bear in mind that the money from Government comprises of around 75-80% of what a Council gets then it takes only a very small reduction or even just to freeze the amount, to have a disproportional impact on Council Tax rises.
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
I'm happy to pay the extra. If - IF - it keeps toilets open, library staff in a job, the rubbish collected weekly, gets the pot holes filled in PROPERLY (!!!), keeps Police Officers on the street, dog shit off the street and not a penny of it wasted on frippery, then I'm happy to pay an extra 2.5%.
On another tack, I would be interested to know how, in these austere times, our MPs can justify an extra £1000 on their basic pay, though. Hardly seems right that the reward for the expenses scandal is an extra £1000 each.
True friends stab you in the front.
Guest 660- Registered: 14 Mar 2008
- Posts: 3,205
Andy you will like this,at the Full Council last week I ask Ian Ward the portfolio holder how much extra the Council will get because of the new houses that have been built,he said £60,000,my follow up question was that is enough to keep the Toilets open at Maison Dieu and Buckland Bridge if DTC decided not to finance them,he said that there were other things that may need financing.
If you knew what I know,we would both be in trouble!
You all seem to be forgetting that KCC have over £50m in reserves and yet are charging us more. Of all years to ease the pain to taxpayers this must surely be the most important one, but, no, they want a bigger pound of flesh.
Still, if it puts nice wine on the table for the Leader's bashes, I suppose we should be grateful.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i doubt if KCC can win on this one, if they have 50 million in reserves then it is earning interest.
if they had no reserves, presumably they would be in debt paying interest, thus adding to our council tax bills.
50 million does not seem that much to me anyway, kent is a very large county.
Howard, at one time last year KCC reserves stood at over £100m. They lost £53m of our money in the Icelandic bank scandal, for which no-one has been held accountable. I'm staggered you are so compliant in giving them even more money to mismanage with no justification required on their part. Amazing.
Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
They won't be earning much interest on it at the moment, Howard - not with interest rates at 0.5%. I'd like to see some of that £50m being used on filling it some of the enormous craters on the roads at the moment.
True friends stab you in the front.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Sid - the money in Icelandic banks invested by KCC was only about 5% of their portfolio, thats all. The £50m was spilt between reserves and pension. They need large reserves given the size of the authority (and a large pension pot). The whole issue of reserves is a red herring, we can all see what happens when reserves get spent from the panic we had in Dover during the last year or so of the the Labour regime at DDC.
JHG, as the Whitfield housing build is in respect of a planning period of 30 yars its hardly going to do much for DDC finances for an awful long time!
Guest 651- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 5,673
It should also be remembered that KCC have a budget of apparently £2.4billion so a £50m reserve is a mere 2% of their annual spend....
Been nice knowing you :)
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
at the end of the day the icelandic money will be paid back to us, it is just the terms that have to be negotiated.
andy
the interest rates for deposits may be low, not so for borrowing though.
Scotchie, the reserve was over £100m, and that equated to nearer 5% of annual spend. KCC are offering nothing more for their increased tax take, and indeed will probably be laying off a good number of staff in the coming fiscal year. So, I ask again, how do they justify an above inflationary increase?
Just as worrying is the compliant tone of the responses, an acceptance that we must take, unchallenged, what these overinflated and underperfoming authorites hit us with.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
you should learn to doff your cap sid, these people are here merely to help us in a selfless way.
rather dissimilar to our representatives in the commons and lords(not all), who take every opportunity to get themselves "sorted".
don't forget that every penny has to be accounted for at county and district level.
In fairness to Gwynn, his appears to be one of the few who have played their expenses with a straight bat and i think he deserves some credit for that.
I'm off to find my cloth cap now. Hmm, wonder where it is. I've got a fez, will that do?
