Don't miss this golden opportunity....
 

In this weeks Observer HBC's idiot-in-chief, "barking " Britcliffe, is wringing his hands over the unavoidable necessity of whacking up Council Tax by 10%. According to him this a conspiracy by the Government to keep Hyndburn in the gutter. And the fact that they have an enormous debt of over £60,000,000 to service has nothing whatever to do with it...yeah, right!

Anyway you have the opportunity to Annonymously tell HBC exactly what you think they should do with the council tax by visiting the council website and filling in an online survey.

http://www.hyndburnbc.gov.uk

Re: Don't miss this golden opportunity....
 

oooooh with pleasure!! it seems its any excuse to pass the buck n that money has been wasted n could of been better spend hence why HBC are trying to get rid of their housing stock n hopefully for the better of tenants as they could run a p-up in a brewery.

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Ooppsss mean *couldnt run a p-up in a brewery*:o

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Done it.......I wonder if anyone will take any notice though.

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Do you think this should be pinned.....?

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Thanks for that opportunity A-b :)

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Consider it done A Bob, hope it makes a difference.

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Have just filled out the survey, all i can say,it's a good job i did not have to submit my name and address. lol

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I have filled mine out under no illusion that any notice will be taken of it, but for the record, it was nothing short of scathing. I'd love to have read yours A-B...:D

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I assume then Janet, you didn't want to win £100-00?
"If you would like to be entered into the prize draw for a chance to win £100, please enter your name, postcode & house number in the box below. Your details will not be passed on to any other organisations and will not be used by the Council for any other purpose."

When I read that the information will not be used for any other purpose, a cold shiver went down my spine. I wonder why?:rolleyes:

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No busman i did not want to win the £100, the council would only report me to the social for unearned income and cut my benefit. lol

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I will bump this one up to the top of the list from time to time because I think that it is important that as many people as possible should have the opportunity to respond to HBC's invitation.

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Done it....Question 7 is very loaded....and there isn't a real alternative either.

Told them I do not wish to give my name and address to anyone. Especially the Council!

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Did it yesterday. I was always brought up to be prepared to put my name to what I said so I did. If you feel strongly about something why hide your name? It doesn't make sense to me.

Ian

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Well I filled in the survey. Having read all of your thoughts about Accy from time to time. I must have become brainwashed.:D Didn't give 'em much info. Just told 'em what I think of the Council.

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Done it. Given them both the London address and the Ossy address - that will tax their mighty brains rather much! Have also said on their Comments site that their survey is crap. It is totally inflexible, and is designed to lead in a certain direction, unless of course you tell them that you don't want any services, just to pay less. I also said that it was stupid to ask someone not involved in local government what they would spend 0.5 to 1 million on - how are you supposed to know what that buys? I did say from experience as a school governor that I know it costs over 0.5 million a year to keep a primary school going. I did suggest it might best be spent on an overhaul of their management practices, in an effort to make them more efficient!

About how many people work for Hyndburn Council? - about a third of them.

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That is a none starter Pendy, after all, the management isn't well enough trained in mangement practices to recognise a good course to send themselves on!
:idunno:

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ok ive given them a few suggestions on how to save money and improve service

1: stop giving people money to renovate houses they let fall into disrepair in the first place it should be up to them to maintain and repair their property ( refering to all the grants certain groups of peope get )

2: stop digging up broadway it was fine as it was with the flower beds and now it looks a disgrace and all the millions spent on the cobbles in town centre are now covered in tarmac

3: kick the binmen up the ass and tell them to actualy take bags of rubbish away instead of leaving it for the rats it seems binmen are scared of getting their hands dirty ( if you dont want dirty hands dont do a dirty job)

3: put sighns in parks stating that rides and swings are used at parents/childs own risk to prevent stupid claims for scratched knees ( hell we all fallen of a swing and i dont remember anyone giving me thousands of pounds for it )

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I would love to see the results, and in particular the comments made.

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well they call us customers now so if the customer is always right we should be seeing some results soon lol

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Y're joking ar'nt you, the speed HBC work at, could be 2008 before you see any results
:wave8:

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they took my money for april 2005 and its only january

now thats fast service

lighthouse
 

just stayed in a lighthouse cottage just 4 cottages and the lighthouse near padstow just. great 2miles from nearst house pub shop but great to listen to the sea lighthouse, still in use but not manned now seals on rocks 2 mins walk beaches 10min walk nobody on them yet have a look www.ruralretreats.co.uk

Re: lighthouse
 

ime sure this idea will be looked into further at the next meeting of councilors lol

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The title of the thread is "Don't miss this golden opportunity.... ", I presume that's what Rosegrove is trying to say?

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It has always amazed me that Hyndburn is run by the Conservatives. An outsider would justifiably ask "What on earth have they got that they want to conserve?"

I'm told that the Conservative traditions in Hyndburn reflect the high level of owner occupancy in the grid iron streets, where people tended to think themselves as self supporting and above the working class Labour Party.

There is also the fact that the Liberal Democrats are virtually non existent in the Borough, so the voters are faced with a stark choice between Labour and Conservative. To vote one party out, you have to vote the other lot in.

So the Labour lot may well have let us down. Therefore we have the Conservatives.

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Is this thread not going a little bit off track :confused:

I could enter in to a discussion relating to "the party or parties" but again it's a little bit of the topic, don't you think :D

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The thread started with mention of Councillor Britcliffe. Anyone who knows him will agree that moving to discussing which party should be in control of the Council is not moving off the subject, as he spends most of his living hours talking about it.

But lets get back to the original point - ie that Cllr B. is hiking Council Tax by 10% and the Council has £60 million debt to pay off.

The debt has accrued over the last 60 years as loans were taken out to fund every housing and building development that Hyndburn and its predecessors built. So the debt belongs as much to the old Accrington, Oswaldtwistle, Great Harwood, Clayton and Rishton Councils, and is not something you can blame the existing Council for.

The bulk of the debt relates to housing developments, and if the Council transfers its stock to a separate Registered Social Landlord (ie a Housing Association) it will receive a payment that will enable it to pay off part of the housing debt, and the rest of the housing debt will be paid off by the Government.

Te 10% increase in Council Tax is nothing to do with the debt, because the Council receives government grant to meet the loan repayments. It is everything to do with the fact that this years elections are for the County Council, so voter reaction against the Conservatives will be felt at County Hall, not at Scaitcliffe House.

Last year, the Councillors were going to increase the Council Tax by 10% but dramatically reduced it at the last minute. Result? Conservatives retained power at the May elections.

Nothing to do with setting financial targets to meet Council priorities. Nothing to do with deciding what is "affordable" to the local taxpayer. Nothing to do with planning for the future.Everything to do with political expediency.

And for that reason the Council only scored "fair" in an independent assessment by auditors.

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Maybe they want us to pay more so they can build another amazing fountain or a cog..............wow

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Have just noticed that Park 381 wonders why I am interested in "our leader PB".

Please read the posting again. I said I was interested in recent postings related to him.

Only a minor point but thought I would mention it.

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I think that the use of the term "working class" in any context is generally accepted as referring to "blue collar" or manual workers be they labourers or skilled craftsmen ( oh dear -- should have said or craftswomen -- please don`t report me).

At least that is what I have understood, but who can criticise the logic of Park381 ?

Re: Don't miss this golden opportunity....
 

I think that the term goes back a long way, even before the "White collar" or "Blue collar",
"From a working class background" is/was a term used often to describe a person who was seen to make good, or get on in the world, and as stated reminds me of the cloth cap and clog image of yester year.Similar to finishing time at H&B on the factory bottoms, or EE at Clayton-le-Moors (brings back many memories)
Don't think their council tax or rates were as high as they are now, but then again they did'nt earn as much, but they still had their problems.
On the subject of political parties, I can remember years ago, being told by a Works Manager that I should be voting for party A, cause if I voted for party B, and party B got in power, they would scrap the project I was working on.(again happy memories) :bleedht: