bickster Posted February 19 Moderator Share Posted February 19 24 minutes ago, wishywashy said: The council hopes renegotiating children's travel contracts could also save £13m a year. That’ll be amusing. I’ve seen it attempted a few times either in education or the NHS. The only ways to reduce the costs are: Ser up your own council transportation system. Which means buying vehicles and employing people plus training them. Which May cut the costs marginally over say 2 decades or Double and triple up the children this doesn’t save as much as they’ll imagine because most kids getting council provided transport have special needs and / or behavioural problems and can’t travel with other children and possibly have to have supervision I’ve got a mate who sells an integrated software solution for account holders with cab firms that minimises costs but he reckons they can shave about 15% of the costs but they have to take their cut too. They try to renegotiate the contracts and the cab firms will just either refuse or cancel the contract. The people that supervise the children aren’t going to take a pay cut as they’ll mostly be women on short hours and minimum wage remind me, how did this mess start again? They’ll never make savings of the magnitude they imagine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lapal_fan Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Can someone explain how a council can go bust, and explain it like you would to a 5 year old? Y'know.. so @Paddywhack could understand.. Surely a council is only as rich as central government investment and tax generation allows. What is Bham council doing that say, Dudley or Manchester council aren't? I also heard Windsor and Slough councils are going to the wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Sorry, Birmingham has weekly bin collections and street lighting? Is it the 1990’s? Once every 3 weeks here for the bins, and the only street lights are at busy junctions. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddywhack Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 36 minutes ago, lapal_fan said: Can someone explain how a council can go bust, and explain it like you would to a 5 year old? Y'know.. so @Paddywhack could understand.. Surely a council is only as rich as central government investment and tax generation allows. What is Bham council doing that say, Dudley or Manchester council aren't? I also heard Windsor and Slough councils are going to the wall. What’s a council? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted February 19 Moderator Share Posted February 19 43 minutes ago, lapal_fan said: Can someone explain how a council can go bust, and explain it like you would to a 5 year old? Y'know.. so @Paddywhack could understand.. Surely a council is only as rich as central government investment and tax generation allows. What is Bham council doing that say, Dudley or Manchester council aren't? I also heard Windsor and Slough councils are going to the wall. Birminghams particular problem is the equal pay claims won by the unions when the council was Tory controlled but the chickens have finally come home to roost with Labour in power. Both parties at fault over time because the claims go back decades. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lichfield Dean Posted February 19 VT Supporter Share Posted February 19 49 minutes ago, lapal_fan said: Can someone explain how a council can go bust, and explain it like you would to a 5 year old? Y'know.. so @Paddywhack could understand.. Surely a council is only as rich as central government investment and tax generation allows. What is Bham council doing that say, Dudley or Manchester council aren't? I also heard Windsor and Slough councils are going to the wall. There was recent report on The Guardian I think, or maybe the BBC, and Birmingham ranked I think 41st of all councils in terms of debt per council tax payer. There are councils out there that have ten times the debt per head of Birmingham. It's just that Birmingham is by far the largest so it makes good headlines. The reasons seem to vary by council - some are historic issues, some are large projects that went wrong, but most seem to involve risky investments that went badly wrong (triggered by government underfunding leading to immensely bad decisions) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinker Posted February 20 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20 The equal pay claims aren't just confined to Birmingham, they are the biggest so it made sense to set the tone /case law with them. Others are set to join the club. Tbh I doubt many councils didn't pay women less, their only hope is the timescale may mean there not many claimants left alive. ‘"It’s going to cost billions’: UK councils face huge bills over equal pay claims GMB union is supporting 3,000 claims in Birmingham – and is gathering evidence from 20 other councils" https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/09/going-to-cost-billions-uk-councils-huge-bills-equal-pay-claims Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sidcow Posted February 20 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20 9 hours ago, chrisp65 said: Sorry, Birmingham has weekly bin collections and street lighting? Is it the 1990’s? Once every 3 weeks here for the bins, and the only street lights are at busy junctions. Yes, but this is a first world country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Davkaus Posted February 20 Popular Post Share Posted February 20 (edited) I'm not in Birmingham, but I'm watching this with interest, as Nottingham is only a few months behind you, and we'll be seeing similar hikes while seeing services cut to, or past the bone. I couldn't give a **** about potholes, bin collections, or streetlights, really. I'd like these things to be well provisioned, but it's deck chairs on the titanic. The real tragedy is a a 24m cut to adult social care and a 51.5m cut to cut to children's and family services. It's only right and proper that vulnerable children pay for the mistakes of previous generations of voters. Someone must be held accountable for these failings, may as well be the people who can't fight back. What a **** sad state of affairs. Edited February 20 by Davkaus 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
icouldtelltheworld Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Quite possibly been mentioned in this thread already, but it's worth checking out the Birmingham Dispatch; independent journalism set up by a disgruntled former Birmingham Mail employee. Similar to initiatives set up in other cities previously (Manchester, Sheffield, maybe Liverpool as well): https://www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted February 20 Moderator Share Posted February 20 25 minutes ago, icouldtelltheworld said: Quite possibly been mentioned in this thread already, but it's worth checking out the Birmingham Dispatch; independent journalism set up by a disgruntled former Birmingham Mail employee. Similar to initiatives set up in other cities previously (Manchester, Sheffield, maybe Liverpool as well): https://www.birminghamdispatch.co.uk/ Yeah there's a Liverpool Post one too, its been going a couple of years now. Pretty similar set up story 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlwaysAVFC Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 14 hours ago, chrisp65 said: Sorry, Birmingham has weekly bin collections and street lighting? Is it the 1990’s? Once every 3 weeks here for the bins, and the only street lights are at busy junctions. Yeah, seen lots of the moans on social media. I've lived under 3 councils in the last 15 years, all have their own systems but general waste has been every other week. I'm a family of 4 and 1 wheelie bin is fine. Very occasionally I have to give the last bag a bit of a push. Where I live now has had the bi weekly approach for 20+ years I think. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted February 20 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20 I'm technically under Walsall council now, despite still being in Sutton, but our rubbish is fortnightly as well. With wheelie bins it's absolutely fine. If we were still putting rubbish on the side of the road in bags then it would be an issue. But with proper bins fortnightly is fine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyrusr Posted February 20 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20 2 hours ago, Davkaus said: I'm not in Birmingham, but I'm watching this with interest, as Nottingham is only a few months behind you, and we'll be seeing similar hikes while seeing services cut to, or past the bone. I couldn't give a **** about potholes, bin collections, or streetlights, really. I'd like these things to be well provisioned, but it's deck chairs on the titanic. The real tragedy is a a 24m cut to adult social care and a 51.5m cut to cut to children's and family services. It's only right and proper that vulnerable children pay for the mistakes of previous generations of voters. Someone must be held accountable for these failings, may as well be the people who can't fight back. What a **** sad state of affairs. Whole heartedly agree with this. As someone who has pretty much daily dealings with their children services, they are already cut to the bone and they are close to breaking. So for them to lose another £51.5m is going to be horrific. The whole system is broken and needs major reform/reinvestment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted February 20 Moderator Share Posted February 20 2 hours ago, Stevo985 said: I'm technically under Walsall council now, despite still being in Sutton, but our rubbish is fortnightly as well. Are parts of Sutton under Walsall? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted February 20 VT Supporter Share Posted February 20 (edited) 11 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said: Are parts of Sutton under Walsall? Streetly seems to be a bit of an oddity. It's a Birmingham post code, and part of Sutton Coldfield, but it falls under Walsall council, or at least parts of it do. I'm sure some of it falls under Lichfield council as well Edited February 20 by Stevo985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted February 20 Moderator Share Posted February 20 6 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said: Are parts of Sutton under Walsall? Barr Beacon is Walsall Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted February 20 Moderator Share Posted February 20 Just now, Stevo985 said: Streetly seems to be a bit of an oddity. It's a Birmingham post code, and part of Sutton Coldfield, but it falls under Walsall council. I'm sure some of it falls under Lichfield council as well I'm surprised it's under Walsall (I checked and it is), but also surprised it's thought of as in Sutton, it's an odd, but pleasant place, only slightly sullied by Wendy Morton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted February 20 Moderator Share Posted February 20 1 minute ago, Stevo985 said: Streetly seems to be a bit of an oddity. It's a Birmingham post code, and part of Sutton Coldfield, but it falls under Walsall council. I'm sure some of it falls under Lichfield council as well Great Barr can be in Birmingham, Sandwell or Walsall, all got B43 postcodes. Postcodes have absolutely nothing to do with local authorities, just to which postal district delivers the mail Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OutByEaster? Posted February 20 Moderator Share Posted February 20 2 minutes ago, bickster said: Barr Beacon is Walsall Well yes, as is Pheasey and Aldridge, Streetly is unusual in that it seems to be Walsall, Birmingham and Lichfield all at the same time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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