Council tax rise of 2% confirmed for Brighton and Hove (From The Argus)

2% isn't exactly a slap is it? It's not even enough to keep up with inflation so actually a small tax cut in real terms.

what priorites, chopping down tress and replacing them with sheep, travellers and their costs, cycle lanes. I really resent my money being wasted like this.

If that's 'slapped' I wonder what you'd call the increases in my train fare, gas bills, electricity bills, water rates, supermarket bills, VAT and petrol? Seems more like a below-inflation 'tickle' to me.

I wonder if the council ever uses electricity, water or petrol? They do? Even a 2% raise would mean an overall cut in services then.

I wish the Argus would give us the real facts. The 1.96% increase is not the maximum amount possible. Any higher amount and the council would have to hold a referendum on the increase. They obviously haven't got the guts to do that.

Look on the bright side, this is yet another nail in the coffin of the green administration. Counting the days until the next election.

Dealing with idiots wrote:
Look on the bright side, this is yet another nail in the coffin of the green administration. Counting the days until the next election.

But who we going to vote for? Greens only got in because of the Con/Lab split...

I though the press were supposed to be neutral? "Slapped" doesn't sound like objective reporting to me...

A below inflation rise is theoretically fine when wage-growth is keeping apace with inflation. Otherwise you're just another claimant kicking hard-working people when they're down. Thanks Greens.

So even the party for the people has now decided to betray the people of Brighton and Hove. Looks like my vote's going to the Tories next time despite voting Green last time. Labour was a possibility until this treachery.

mstrong wrote:
I though the press were supposed to be neutral? "Slapped" doesn't sound like objective reporting to me...

Of course "slapped" is objective - how else can you describe a cynical political move such as this ?

2% council tax rise plus everything else? 10% energy bills rise since last year, food, car tax, water bills. Yep, it's endless. Wonder if peoples pay rises will cover all that?

Yes, but stop moaning, the residents living near the Lewes Road congestion scheme are being offered free eco driving lessons to avoid creating too many fumes.
Money up in smoke due to the most scandalous waste of public money in modern times.

Fight_Back wrote:
So even the party for the people has now decided to betray the people of Brighton and Hove. Looks like my vote's going to the Tories next time despite voting Green last time. Labour was a possibility until this treachery.

Me too, never voted Tory before but will do so to get rid of the Greens.

charlie smirke wrote:

Fight_Back wrote:
So even the party for the people has now decided to betray the people of Brighton and Hove. Looks like my vote's going to the Tories next time despite voting Green last time. Labour was a possibility until this treachery.

Me too, never voted Tory before but will do so to get rid of the Greens.

Yeah, yeah. You always vote Tory. I bet you are wetting yourselves at the prospect of copying barking Barnet and their handover of £700 million contract to a private company, which is the local Tory party policy.

Nobody wants to pay more money for anything but this is 50p a week for my household and £1.20 a week for those living in million pound houses.

Personally, I would like to see a mansion tax introduced.

Blue and Green should never be seen robbing the poor to feather the nests of the stay at home Eco mums and their Hunter welly wearing husbands.
Let them eat carrot cake we hear Kitkat shout to the poor of Moulsecoomb as he cuts the ribbon to his multi million bus lane paid for by hard working tax payer while the poor watch from the grass verge wishing they could afford to ride the privately owned profit making monopoly bus company being given huge swathes of public highway free of charge.
The shareholders must be dancing with delight.

Maxwell's Ghost wrote:
Blue and Green should never be seen robbing the poor to feather the nests of the stay at home Eco mums and their Hunter welly wearing husbands.
Let them eat carrot cake we hear Kitkat shout to the poor of Moulsecoomb as he cuts the ribbon to his multi million bus lane paid for by hard working tax payer while the poor watch from the grass verge wishing they could afford to ride the privately owned profit making monopoly bus company being given huge swathes of public highway free of charge.
The shareholders must be dancing with delight.

You are so funny! You missed out that labour quite rightly supported this council tax rise and in their 13 years in power they did nothing to reverse Tory bus privatisation and featherbeded private bus and train company owners.

Good to see the works on Lewes Rd progressing. I like the bike lanes at the bus stops. Good to see that the parties in B&H have supported major infrastructure improvements for public transport and cycling in the city at a time when car ownership is increasingly expensive.

The current council is Green HJarrs although one could be mistaken for thinking its Blue with its slashing of services to the elderly and the poor while wantonly spending millions on a bus lane for the shareholders of a monopoly bus company.
Then there's the car charging points installed, so its ok to drive a car if you are rich enough to buy a
£20,000 electric car. And now the council is worried that the congestion caused by the new bus lane will increase pollution so the council is spending tax payers money on Eco
Driving lessons to help it reach its pollution reduction target anyway it can. More tax payers money.
This all happens as the Greens shut an old Ladies bowling club for an ice cream Shop, buy a flock of sheep and cut the homeless budget while the Green council installs a light up bus timetable in the Green voting Preston Park ward once again for a private monopoly bus company. The shareholders must be clapping and cheering with astonishment at such unrelenting support.
But never mind HJarrs likes the new bus stops which is nice.

Practically all the transport infrastructure investment that's happening is down to Brighton and Hove City Council punching above its weight and being very good at securing capital grants from central government, and also European funding. Yes it's still tax payer's money but try and see it as the city rightfully claiming its fair share of the central pot, it's not local taxation which is funding it.

Maxwell's Ghost wrote:
The current council is Green HJarrs although one could be mistaken for thinking its Blue with its slashing of services to the elderly and the poor while wantonly spending millions on a bus lane for the shareholders of a monopoly bus company.
Then there's the car charging points installed, so its ok to drive a car if you are rich enough to buy a
£20,000 electric car. And now the council is worried that the congestion caused by the new bus lane will increase pollution so the council is spending tax payers money on Eco
Driving lessons to help it reach its pollution reduction target anyway it can. More tax payers money.
This all happens as the Greens shut an old Ladies bowling club for an ice cream Shop, buy a flock of sheep and cut the homeless budget while the Green council installs a light up bus timetable in the Green voting Preston Park ward once again for a private monopoly bus company. The shareholders must be clapping and cheering with astonishment at such unrelenting support.
But never mind HJarrs likes the new bus stops which is nice.

Sorry Maxwell, Eugenius is absolutely right, the council has to my knowledge not spent millions on bus and bike lanes rather it has spent modest sums and levered in grants and funding from lots of sources to make long overdue changes to infrastructure to encourage people onto public transport and to take up the healthy and cheap options of cycling and walking. Much of this money is not available for spending on social care as you well know.

You also must know as a journo that cuts are taking place all over the country and, despite some of the largest grant reductions in the country, B&H is cutting less than most. If you have a problem with cuts then take it up with Kirby and co. they have their hands on the money.

I would rather the bus company was owned by the people of B&H, but it isn't and your Labour Party did nothing about this when they were in power, but encouraging car travel itself generates profits for shareholders as they do for the bus company.

Yes I am pleased with the first bits of the Lewes rd cycle route, the council have a reputation for terrible cycle and pedestrian design, but so far so good. I want to see a high quality route because unlike you I want to see lots of people take up and enjoy regular cycling.

Wake up world. We are being corralled inexorably into high-walled channels of engagement with this world, according to our means.

And being quietly, invisibly excluded from all the other channels and the rise and rise of the much lauded digital/internet facilities is our shepherd.

All of life is soon going to be lived by Direct Debit and online everything 'to save money'.

When every newspaper and magazine is online, how will you know who is behind production and where the content comes from? Already, sight of a reporter at a council meeting is rare and world-wide, reporters scan the internet for their articles material instead of getting info directly, first-hand.

Every penny saved by forcing people online is a job lost somewhere. People have long been designed out of the labour market at every level and you do have to wonder sometimes (chillingly) at what point even the young will become virtually housebound.

Increasingly, for increasing numbers of people, after rent/mortgage, gas, electricity, phone/internet, there is barely enough left for food - let alone transport or discretionary shopping (or the freedom to be a part-time BHCC councillor!).

Cycling is for the able-bodied (mostly young) and the tipping point is fast approaching that will see streets lined with shops become a thing of the past.

What the h*** use is a human being any more? And without all the jobs from a labour-intensive world where there is a place for everyone and more are needed, the economic edifice crumbles because the whole transaction schtick depends on swap and trade using MONEY!

Without jobs that pay money, you cannot 'buy' services. Where are we going with all this? Back to self-sufficient tribes in tents? What?

Think I'm mad? Look at the demise of Detroit in the USA. There is no system in place for this brave new world that is being self-redundantly being embraced.

Human are now turkeys voting for Christmas.

You make a good point as usual Valarie but sadly discussion of the big issues of how we would like society go forward are missing from the Argus and most media, which are far too happy to serve up easy headlines.

HJarrs wrote:

Maxwell's Ghost wrote: Blue and Green should never be seen robbing the poor to feather the nests of the stay at home Eco mums and their Hunter welly wearing husbands. Let them eat carrot cake we hear Kitkat shout to the poor of Moulsecoomb as he cuts the ribbon to his multi million bus lane paid for by hard working tax payer while the poor watch from the grass verge wishing they could afford to ride the privately owned profit making monopoly bus company being given huge swathes of public highway free of charge. The shareholders must be dancing with delight.

You are so funny! You missed out that labour quite rightly supported this council tax rise and in their 13 years in power they did nothing to reverse Tory bus privatisation and featherbeded private bus and train company owners. Good to see the works on Lewes Rd progressing. I like the bike lanes at the bus stops. Good to see that the parties in B&H have supported major infrastructure improvements for public transport and cycling in the city at a time when car ownership is increasingly expensive.

Unfortunately the elderly and those with young kids cannot cycle unless they have a paid companion or a nanny to do things for them

Political suicide. Of course supported by the usual Green stooge HJarrs.

Shame on Gill Mitchell for supporting this. But then I suppose the Labour party have learned nothing from having bust the country...

When are the tax rises going to stop? When no one has any money left?

Phani Tikkala wrote:
Political suicide. Of course supported by the usual Green stooge HJarrs.

Shame on Gill Mitchell for supporting this. But then I suppose the Labour party have learned nothing from having bust the country...

When are the tax rises going to stop? When no one has any money left?

So do you think the Tory led central government is currently costing you less than 50p a week more? Too many posters here can't quite see the wood for the trees, or the elephant in the room (Tory mishandling of the economy to suit the very wealthy).

But no, let's blame the Greens :)

Fercri Sakes wrote:

Phani Tikkala wrote:
Political suicide. Of course supported by the usual Green stooge HJarrs.

Shame on Gill Mitchell for supporting this. But then I suppose the Labour party have learned nothing from having bust the country...

When are the tax rises going to stop? When no one has any money left?

So do you think the Tory led central government is currently costing you less than 50p a week more? Too many posters here can't quite see the wood for the trees, or the elephant in the room (Tory mishandling of the economy to suit the very wealthy).

But no, let's blame the Greens :)

Given that 2m have been taken out of the tax system by the Tories, I would say you haven't got a clue what you're talking about. The top 14% of earners also pay 60% of tax.

If people are avoiding paying tax, then it's through loopholes that were just as open under Labour as the Tories, in fact the Tories are seeking to close them - see Jimmy Carr for more info.

Where are the Tories running the economy for the rich? When I grew up Labour ran it for their paymasters the unions to the detriment of the rest of us. If they get in again, they will run it for the unions again if they can - it's their only source of funding.

HJarrs wrote:

Maxwell's Ghost wrote:
The current council is Green HJarrs although one could be mistaken for thinking its Blue with its slashing of services to the elderly and the poor while wantonly spending millions on a bus lane for the shareholders of a monopoly bus company.
Then there's the car charging points installed, so its ok to drive a car if you are rich enough to buy a
£20,000 electric car. And now the council is worried that the congestion caused by the new bus lane will increase pollution so the council is spending tax payers money on Eco
Driving lessons to help it reach its pollution reduction target anyway it can. More tax payers money.
This all happens as the Greens shut an old Ladies bowling club for an ice cream Shop, buy a flock of sheep and cut the homeless budget while the Green council installs a light up bus timetable in the Green voting Preston Park ward once again for a private monopoly bus company. The shareholders must be clapping and cheering with astonishment at such unrelenting support.
But never mind HJarrs likes the new bus stops which is nice.

Sorry Maxwell, Eugenius is absolutely right, the council has to my knowledge not spent millions on bus and bike lanes rather it has spent modest sums and levered in grants and funding from lots of sources to make long overdue changes to infrastructure to encourage people onto public transport and to take up the healthy and cheap options of cycling and walking. Much of this money is not available for spending on social care as you well know.

You also must know as a journo that cuts are taking place all over the country and, despite some of the largest grant reductions in the country, B&H is cutting less than most. If you have a problem with cuts then take it up with Kirby and co. they have their hands on the money.

I would rather the bus company was owned by the people of B&H, but it isn't and your Labour Party did nothing about this when they were in power, but encouraging car travel itself generates profits for shareholders as they do for the bus company.

Yes I am pleased with the first bits of the Lewes rd cycle route, the council have a reputation for terrible cycle and pedestrian design, but so far so good. I want to see a high quality route because unlike you I want to see lots of people take up and enjoy regular cycling.

The funding comes from non-specific taxpayers, but taxpayers all the same. I would imagine if most were asked whether they would rather have cycle lanes or services, the answer would be services every time.

There is little demand for cycling here as current schemes have proved.

HJarrs wrote:

charlie smirke wrote:

Fight_Back wrote:
So even the party for the people has now decided to betray the people of Brighton and Hove. Looks like my vote's going to the Tories next time despite voting Green last time. Labour was a possibility until this treachery.

Me too, never voted Tory before but will do so to get rid of the Greens.

Yeah, yeah. You always vote Tory. I bet you are wetting yourselves at the prospect of copying barking Barnet and their handover of £700 million contract to a private company, which is the local Tory party policy.

Potentially it's a great policy for the taxpayers of Barnet IF the contracts are drawn up correctly. It should lead to clearly defined service levels for clearly defined services, a cap on spending and year on year reductions. The problem will be that the commercials will be handled by council staff.

The policy doesn't take into account that much of what the councils do is act as social employers at no benefit to the community. As an example, why does each council need to have the same duplicated back office services?

Valerie Paynter wrote:
Wake up world. We are being corralled inexorably into high-walled channels of engagement with this world, according to our means.

And being quietly, invisibly excluded from all the other channels and the rise and rise of the much lauded digital/internet facilities is our shepherd.

All of life is soon going to be lived by Direct Debit and online everything 'to save money'.

When every newspaper and magazine is online, how will you know who is behind production and where the content comes from? Already, sight of a reporter at a council meeting is rare and world-wide, reporters scan the internet for their articles material instead of getting info directly, first-hand.

Every penny saved by forcing people online is a job lost somewhere. People have long been designed out of the labour market at every level and you do have to wonder sometimes (chillingly) at what point even the young will become virtually housebound.

Increasingly, for increasing numbers of people, after rent/mortgage, gas, electricity, phone/internet, there is barely enough left for food - let alone transport or discretionary shopping (or the freedom to be a part-time BHCC councillor!).

Cycling is for the able-bodied (mostly young) and the tipping point is fast approaching that will see streets lined with shops become a thing of the past.

What the h*** use is a human being any more? And without all the jobs from a labour-intensive world where there is a place for everyone and more are needed, the economic edifice crumbles because the whole transaction schtick depends on swap and trade using MONEY!

Without jobs that pay money, you cannot 'buy' services. Where are we going with all this? Back to self-sufficient tribes in tents? What?

Think I'm mad? Look at the demise of Detroit in the USA. There is no system in place for this brave new world that is being self-redundantly being embraced.

Human are now turkeys voting for Christmas.

Unfortunately, like Pandora's box, once it's been opened it can't be shut again.

What you're talking about is change. A lot of people don't like it. Our kids will grow up thinking it's perfectly normal and will live lives adapted to it.

Plantpot said: Where are the Tories running the economy for the rich?

Answer: Tax cuts for the highest earners, a huge reduction in corporation tax, quantitative easing, continuation of huge banker bonuses in publicly owned banks, outsourcing public services to corporations, lack of control on energy prices, failure to tackle boardroom pay, preventing a mansion tax, refusal to implement a Tobin tax, postponing the separation of casino banking from normal banking and not closing phoney tax avoidance schemes.

And for the lowest 80% of earners we have public sector pay freezes and layoffs, VAT rise, reducing the NHS to it's barest bones, reduction of council tax benefits, end of the SureStart programme, huge increases in university fees, removal of education allowance, reduction of disability benefits and tax credits, huge decrease in living standards, stigmatisation as 'scroungers', the Tory front bench laughing as they announced the new Welfare Bill and paying companies thousands of pounds a time to 'train' people in work receiving benefits.

HJarrs, the schemes are funded by tax payers. It's irrelevant which pot it comes out of, it originally comes from my pocket.
I would rather a councillor take a moral stand and refuse the cash than go along with the mentality that the EU is a cash cow which we don't pay into.
It's still our money.
And do you really think it's acceptable then to spend council tax payers money on driving lessons because the council now knows that the pollution levels are even higher with the new lane.
Scandalous.

Maxwell's Ghost wrote:
HJarrs, the schemes are funded by tax payers. It's irrelevant which pot it comes out of, it originally comes from my pocket.
I would rather a councillor take a moral stand and refuse the cash than go along with the mentality that the EU is a cash cow which we don't pay into.
It's still our money.
And do you really think it's acceptable then to spend council tax payers money on driving lessons because the council now knows that the pollution levels are even higher with the new lane.
Scandalous.

I thought the new lane hasn't been built yet?

Fercri Sakes wrote:
Plantpot said: Where are the Tories running the economy for the rich?

Answer: Tax cuts for the highest earners, a huge reduction in corporation tax, quantitative easing, continuation of huge banker bonuses in publicly owned banks, outsourcing public services to corporations, lack of control on energy prices, failure to tackle boardroom pay, preventing a mansion tax, refusal to implement a Tobin tax, postponing the separation of casino banking from normal banking and not closing phoney tax avoidance schemes.

And for the lowest 80% of earners we have public sector pay freezes and layoffs, VAT rise, reducing the NHS to it's barest bones, reduction of council tax benefits, end of the SureStart programme, huge increases in university fees, removal of education allowance, reduction of disability benefits and tax credits, huge decrease in living standards, stigmatisation as 'scroungers', the Tory front bench laughing as they announced the new Welfare Bill and paying companies thousands of pounds a time to 'train' people in work receiving benefits.

Tax cuts for the highest earners have cost us nothing. In case you haven't looked lately, 40% of £1m is worth more to the Exchequer than 40% of £100k. High rate earners pay more tax in real terms if the percentage is the same for all earners.

A reduction in corporation tax is intended to boost the economy for all of us.

If bankers are contractually due a bonus, why shouldn't they be paid it? That cash is spent on goods and services in our economy. I don't see you calling for footballers to have their "wages" slashed.

Outsourcing is great if it leads to savings and efficiencies for taxpayers.

The govt. can't control energy as it seems to no longer have control of the means of production. Of course, if it was economic to do so, Labour could have re-nationalised all the energy industries and re-opened mothballed mines etc. An admission that digging coal out of the ground is uneconomic as is the infrastructure that goes with it (not to mention the spectre of industrial relations going back to the 70's).

Why in anyone's name should there be a mansion tax (or is it a jealousy tax)? It's a tax on property paid for by hard work or the thrift that allows people to pass things they have worked for all their lives to their children and who in turn want to pass it on to their children. Many "mansions" will have already had inheritance tax paid on them. Many mansions aren't mansions at all either.

The Tobin tax would hamstring our financial industry on which so many people, in this country depend, including those on the social. A very dim idea.

Investment banking will eventually be separated from retail banking, just chill. Oh and of course, that will likely see the end of free banking for the ordinary man in the street.

The govt. are closing phony tax avoidance schemes.

We're all suffering wage freezes and layoffs. What makes the public sector exempt from the real world?

University fees aren't borrowed on a commercial basis. So don't worry about it, you only pay when you earn enough to pay it back ( a lot of people don't seem to get that, you're not on your own).

Education allowance was proven to make no difference as to whether kids attended school or not, which is why the decision to scrap it was taken. Of course, there is access to other funds if you can prove you actually NEED them.

Tax credits/benefits etc. Disability seems to still be going to those that need it. Tax credits - what is the point - why not tax people less (oh, just like the Tories have done for the 2m just taken out of the system).

You're right about the training though - let's stop it and save the money instead. Is that really what you mean?

I know I've missed some stuff, but I have other things to do.

Ok, Plantpot, my mistake. It's obvious that George Osbourne is doing a wonderful job for the British economy. Silly old me.

Beginning to really look like all of them the same - Green/ Tory/ Labour/ Libs/ UKIP nutters..

Someone should stand as single issue candidate - eg, no tax rise/ no speed cameras/ whatever you believe in


Seems we're back to the DIY era!

george smith wrote:

HJarrs wrote:

Maxwell's Ghost wrote: Blue and Green should never be seen robbing the poor to feather the nests of the stay at home Eco mums and their Hunter welly wearing husbands. Let them eat carrot cake we hear Kitkat shout to the poor of Moulsecoomb as he cuts the ribbon to his multi million bus lane paid for by hard working tax payer while the poor watch from the grass verge wishing they could afford to ride the privately owned profit making monopoly bus company being given huge swathes of public highway free of charge. The shareholders must be dancing with delight.

You are so funny! You missed out that labour quite rightly supported this council tax rise and in their 13 years in power they did nothing to reverse Tory bus privatisation and featherbeded private bus and train company owners. Good to see the works on Lewes Rd progressing. I like the bike lanes at the bus stops. Good to see that the parties in B&H have supported major infrastructure improvements for public transport and cycling in the city at a time when car ownership is increasingly expensive.

Unfortunately the elderly and those with young kids cannot cycle unless they have a paid companion or a nanny to do things for them

Those who are stupid enough to believe the messages in HJarrs Green party spin are probably the same muppets that voted Labour before moving on to voting the Greens in.

Laughable

Reap what you sow!

Blimey. 50% of Argus poll currently support Green budget unamended; 37 % Tory amendments; 13% Labour amendments! Could it be the rabid Green haters on these blogs are not that repreentative. Nah- of course not. Poll has probably been fiddled by travellers, students people who put horse in burgers. Or perhaps it represents an acknowledgement that the Greens are making an honest try here. And I speak as someone who has never voted Green but is a tad disappointed with my Labour party's babyish hatred of the Greens. At least the Tories are consistent!

Rearrangethedeckchai
rs wrote:
Blimey. 50% of Argus poll currently support Green budget unamended; 37 % Tory amendments; 13% Labour amendments! Could it be the rabid Green haters on these blogs are not that repreentative. Nah- of course not. Poll has probably been fiddled by travellers, students people who put horse in burgers. Or perhaps it represents an acknowledgement that the Greens are making an honest try here. And I speak as someone who has never voted Green but is a tad disappointed with my Labour party's babyish hatred of the Greens. At least the Tories are consistent!

See my previous post...

Those who are stupid enough to believe the messages in HJarrs Green party spin are probably the same muppets that voted Labour before moving on to voting the Greens in.

Laughable

Reap what you sow!