I was slightly taken aback when I read this week's Cambrian News (a few days later than normal I must admit) and found myself being name checked in the letters page.
As the final paragraph of the letter written by E.A.Jones from Ciliau Aeron stated:
"I challenge all councillors and other decision-makers to join me in my journey on a bus to see what we non-drivers have to endure when wanting to tour around this county. They'd soon change their tune if they had to put up with what we have to put up with, apart from Cllr Mark Cole from Cardigan, whom I've had the pleasure of meeting many times on our buses and who makes full use of our public transport system".
It was a surprise to see a name-check like that in the paper and I'm not entirely sure who in this case E.A.Jones is although I'm sure I'd instantly recognise the face and anyway, it was pleasing all the same to see such kind words in the paper as was the case here.
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am well known - indeed, famed almost - for not being a car driver. Yes, I'm 27 and I should be driving by now I know and I always say that I will get around to it sometime soon. But the pressure of work on my time commitments has meant that I've never had the time needed to put in for regular lessons. What I will one day resort to I'm sure is an intensive burst of lessons over a short space of time and get it all done in one go.
Public Transport is King
But until that happens, I will continue to do what I have done since I began my time in Aberystwyth University 11 years ago - use the bus.
I'm often asked 'how do you do it? Up and down to Council meetings in Aberaeron or when I worked in Aberystwyth up and back from there on a regular, daily 75 mile round-trip basis'? Well, like anything, it just became a normal part of my day-to-day routine. I also enjoy it. My travelling to and from work more often that not would become one of the few oasis's of calm that I would enjoy in the day. I'd make use of it by catching up on the daily or weekly newspapers or would even indulge myself in a light snooze if I'd been lacking in the required 40 winks the night before. From time to time I'd chat to fellow bus users and as the years went by and I became a 'regular' of sorts, these chats and discussions would invariably increase - particularly with my fellow regular bus users.
During my Mayoral year in Cardigan last year, I also got myself a reputation for fighting for local transport users when I wrote a stinging letter to Arriva Buses Wales after they botched up timetable changes by not telling the paying users in advance. The result being that users of all ages, but particularly the elderly, were waiting in the rain and wind in Aberaeron for a bust that had already left for Aberystwyth. As a result, the Head of Operations for Arriva Buses Wales came down from his HQ in Llandudno Junction in north Wales to meet with me in Cardigan and he apologised for their mistakes and the break down in communication.
Welsh Assembly Let-Down
Whilst public sector budgets are being squeezed, support from the Welsh Assembly for our rural areas that particularly require public transport services has been woeful. The Welsh Assembly presently distributes the Local Transport Service Grant unfairly as the formula on which it is based is on population and therefore disadvantages the rural area of Mid Wales.
It is an issue on which we are fighting and in the meantime, I will continue to proudly use our local bus services to show that as the letter above stated, there are some of us who understand these issues at first hand.
Showing posts with label Cambrian News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cambrian News. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Friday, 25 March 2011
Ceredigion Community Council Raises its Council Tax (Band D) Rate by 600%
It's true, I couldn't make it up.
As reported on the front page of the southern edition of this week's Cambrian News, Dyffryn Arth Community Council have increased its precept 6 fold this year from £5,000 to £30,000 in one, fail incredible swoop.
Dyffryn Arth is a rural community council in mid-Ceredigion to the immediate north of Aberaeron - taking in villages such as Aberarth, Pennant and Nebo. The residents from this community council area will have had quite a shock when their annual council tax demand arrived in the post this month from Ceredigion County Council.
It shows that for 2011/12, as well as the overall increase in the community council's precept, the Band D rate will now stand at £57.31 per each resident tax payer. This compared to a 2010/11 figure of just £9.54. That's an increase of 600.7%! Absolutely staggering.
Legal Fees
Why, in the middle of a downturn, this incredulous increase? Well, as reported in the Cambrian News this week, as can be read here, it has been blamed by community councillors on a legal case which they lost and for which they must now pay. The Council decided to go to a tribunal to contest the sale of a piece of land which they believed had been bequeathed to the community council, to a private individual. They lost the case and having decided to cut their losses from appealing the decision, they decided to increase their precept in one-go to pay off the antipicpated legal costs of around £25,000.
Second Highest Band D Tax Rate in Ceredigion
It's quite stagerring in it's own right but when you compare it to the 50 other Town and Community Councils in Ceredigion, the scale of the rise is given an even greater perspective.
Because as this table shows, in 2010/11, Dyffryn Arth's Band D rate was just £9.54. This made it one of only 7 Town or Community Councils in Ceredigion to have a rate of under £10 and made it the 5th cheapest overall out of 51 (the cheapest being Lledrod Community Council at just £3.54 per each resident tax payer!).
Well, the 2011/12 table (which is not yet on-line) shows a new world. It's a world where the residents of Dyffryn Arth have now gone from paying the 5th lowest Band D Tax in Ceredigion out of 51 to paying the 2nd highest - beaten only by Aberystwyth!
It is, when you look at the figures, quite incredible. The residents of Dyffryn Arth will be paying from April 1st this year, £57.31 each instead of £9.54. Only Aberystwyth, with a precept of £240,000, has an understandably higher Band D rate at £69.43. The residents of Dyffryn Arth are therefore set to pay more than the residents of Ceredigion's major towns namely Lampeter (£47.89), Aberaeron (£45.82), Cardigan (£44.48), Aberporth (£36.80), Tregaron (£29.00), Llandysul (£27.29) and Borth (£24.22). Only 4 community councils have this year got a rate of under £10.
What it all means is that the community council of Dyffryn Arth now has at £30,000, a bigger precept than larger Ceredigion conurbations such as Tregaron (£15,000), New Quay (£12,428) and Llanbadarn Fawr (£29,866). Incredibly, it falls only slightly shy of its big brother neighbour in Aberaeron on £33,390
It has gone from having the 35th, up to the 7th highest precept of the 51 Town and Community Councils in the county.
As a Cardigan Town Councillor and formerly as an Aberystwyth Town Councillor, I have already sat through 7 discussions over the years regarding the setting of the annual precept and the Council Tax Band D rate. During the majority of these, there have often been Councillors who have called for a freeze in the rates. I on the other hand along with a majority on most occasions, have regularly called for a small but reasonable increase. This year in Cardigan Town Council for example, we decided on an increase of 2%. My reasoning for this is that it allows the precept to rise steadily over the years so when we have a major project or repairs work to undertake to our properties, the money will be there. Better a slow and gradual increase year-on-year in my book than holding firm and then when an emergency comes along, one large hike comes around the corner and gives a shock to the system of every resident who we have been elected to represent.
Double Trouble
Unfortunately for the residents of Dyffryn Arth, they've suffered the double shock of a mamouth hike in their rates in one year and at the same time know that they are not going to see the benefits of it in the services that they receive from their local council. No, as is often the way, it'll be the legal profession who'll be laughing all the way to the bank in this case.
It goes to show the great care that is required, even at a community council level, of controlling the budgets for which they are responsible and of the decisions that are made. The decision made by those Councillors who serve on Dyffryn Arth Council to take their land ownership fight to a tribunal, with all of the legal risks and costs that that would entail, now looks like a grave one indeed - particularly for those residents in that parish who will now have to foot the bill. I'm sure that those Councillors will now have to face the wrath of their electorate.
They'll be doing so soon too - the next Council elections are in 12 months time in May 2012.
As reported on the front page of the southern edition of this week's Cambrian News, Dyffryn Arth Community Council have increased its precept 6 fold this year from £5,000 to £30,000 in one, fail incredible swoop.
It shows that for 2011/12, as well as the overall increase in the community council's precept, the Band D rate will now stand at £57.31 per each resident tax payer. This compared to a 2010/11 figure of just £9.54. That's an increase of 600.7%! Absolutely staggering.
Legal Fees
Why, in the middle of a downturn, this incredulous increase? Well, as reported in the Cambrian News this week, as can be read here, it has been blamed by community councillors on a legal case which they lost and for which they must now pay. The Council decided to go to a tribunal to contest the sale of a piece of land which they believed had been bequeathed to the community council, to a private individual. They lost the case and having decided to cut their losses from appealing the decision, they decided to increase their precept in one-go to pay off the antipicpated legal costs of around £25,000.
Second Highest Band D Tax Rate in Ceredigion
It's quite stagerring in it's own right but when you compare it to the 50 other Town and Community Councils in Ceredigion, the scale of the rise is given an even greater perspective.
Because as this table shows, in 2010/11, Dyffryn Arth's Band D rate was just £9.54. This made it one of only 7 Town or Community Councils in Ceredigion to have a rate of under £10 and made it the 5th cheapest overall out of 51 (the cheapest being Lledrod Community Council at just £3.54 per each resident tax payer!).
Well, the 2011/12 table (which is not yet on-line) shows a new world. It's a world where the residents of Dyffryn Arth have now gone from paying the 5th lowest Band D Tax in Ceredigion out of 51 to paying the 2nd highest - beaten only by Aberystwyth!
What it all means is that the community council of Dyffryn Arth now has at £30,000, a bigger precept than larger Ceredigion conurbations such as Tregaron (£15,000), New Quay (£12,428) and Llanbadarn Fawr (£29,866). Incredibly, it falls only slightly shy of its big brother neighbour in Aberaeron on £33,390
It has gone from having the 35th, up to the 7th highest precept of the 51 Town and Community Councils in the county.
As a Cardigan Town Councillor and formerly as an Aberystwyth Town Councillor, I have already sat through 7 discussions over the years regarding the setting of the annual precept and the Council Tax Band D rate. During the majority of these, there have often been Councillors who have called for a freeze in the rates. I on the other hand along with a majority on most occasions, have regularly called for a small but reasonable increase. This year in Cardigan Town Council for example, we decided on an increase of 2%. My reasoning for this is that it allows the precept to rise steadily over the years so when we have a major project or repairs work to undertake to our properties, the money will be there. Better a slow and gradual increase year-on-year in my book than holding firm and then when an emergency comes along, one large hike comes around the corner and gives a shock to the system of every resident who we have been elected to represent.
Double Trouble
Unfortunately for the residents of Dyffryn Arth, they've suffered the double shock of a mamouth hike in their rates in one year and at the same time know that they are not going to see the benefits of it in the services that they receive from their local council. No, as is often the way, it'll be the legal profession who'll be laughing all the way to the bank in this case.
It goes to show the great care that is required, even at a community council level, of controlling the budgets for which they are responsible and of the decisions that are made. The decision made by those Councillors who serve on Dyffryn Arth Council to take their land ownership fight to a tribunal, with all of the legal risks and costs that that would entail, now looks like a grave one indeed - particularly for those residents in that parish who will now have to foot the bill. I'm sure that those Councillors will now have to face the wrath of their electorate.
They'll be doing so soon too - the next Council elections are in 12 months time in May 2012.
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