| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Stirling Road recycling centre | |
| Posted by: | Simon Hayes | |
| Date/Time: | 29/11/24 17:36:00 |
| Come off it Philippa. You are really pushing the boundaries of credibility now. The council has mechanisms to raise money, including council tax. Under Julian Bell the council chose to freeze council tax for several years, purely as a vote winning measure. Residents would have accepted a modest rise each year, and the continuation of services. That’s expected but can be budgeted for. Instead we got bleats about government cuts and a lot of virtue signalling. And what’s been the result? Massive increases in the last few years and another on the horizon. But at least our ‘hard working’ councillors are cashing in. Then add in the mayoral precept, which was an inflation busting 8.9 percent last year, and you can see why Londoners don’t really feel they get value for money. A lot of Khan money goes on wasteful gimmicks like cheap Friday fares for a few months (another election bribe) that cost £24m and was a total failure. But if you want to see how wisely our council spends our money have a look at the planning and development departments. They’ve messed up the proposed new builds at Deans Gardens and Southall Market, with the developers walking away due to financial problems. The council cabinet last week proposed to reacquire the sites to try to push on with the building work. It’s doing this through its Broadway Living entity. The cost so far of all this to Ealing taxpayers? £27.8m for Southall and £7.5m for Deans Gardens. This money will supposedly be recouped through sales on both sites, but it’s doubtful anywhere near these eye-watering sums will be realized. And the costs will be higher because this is just what’s needed to get work restarted. The council took out a £400m loan about four years ago, basically for property speculation as Bell and Mason fancied themselves as high flying developers after too many freebie trips to Cannes! Croydon council went bust because it follliwed a policy like this so the warning signs were there, and brightly lit too! If Ealing does go belly up the current council tax rates will seem like small change. Croydon residents had a whopping 15 percent hike last year. If councillors and officers were held personally accountable for reckless behaviour none of this would ever happen. Of course, none of this gets reported so residents are blissfully unaware of the risk others have exposed us to. |