South Gloucestershire Council welcomes your views on local spending cuts
By Trucks79 | Thursday, January 13, 2011, 20:26
Local Officers and Councillors from South Gloucestershire Council have been out in the town talking to local residents to see what they think the councils spending priorities should be now that they have had their funding cut from £91.4m to £77.3m for this year.
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South Gloucestershire Council funding is cut to £77.3m
South Gloucestershire Council have already introduced a number of cost cutting measures prior to the Government spending cuts which have left them in a more reasonable position to tackle the £14.1m funding shortfall.
Just a few spending priorities that I feel South Gloucestershire Council should look at signing off as soon as possible and they include:-
· Further funding to help tackle the increasing number of pot holes currently on our roads within the area.
· More funding for youth projects to allow access for all youths in and around the area.
· Additional speed reduction measures i.e. speed bumps and speed awareness signs.
· Additional investment to help reduce crime and anti-social behaviour in the form of additional CCTV and lighting in hot spot areas.
Do you agree with my South Gloucestershire Council recommended spending priorities? What would you like to see the South Gloucestershire Council prioritise funds for? Do you think the cuts in funding will result to a steep increase in Council tax for local residents during 2011/2012.
Have your say and share your views and comments with us.
Comments
Last year a UPS van came into my road to deliver a parcel and when he was reversing he reversed into a street lamp. He knocked it down. Wires the lot. Then he drove off. I made a note of his reg and contacted the police. I was told that it needed to be reported to the council. So I contacted the South Glos Street Care team and told them what had happened. Within a couple of hours they were out to cap of the wires and to remove the old post. Two days later they came out and fitted a new street lamp.
They did not seem to care about the details in fact the lad on the phone didn’t even want to take down the reg. it was only when I said about it two or three times that he said he would make a note.
I bet the total cost was well over £1000 including man hour's ect.
By bigmandave at 09:01 on 22/01/11
Report@bigmandave I imagine that the drivers would need to be successfully prosecuted for dangerous driving, or similar traffic regulation infringement, before the council could recover the costs of the repair of street furniture and fittings. Since you have an interest in the subject, you ought to ask some pertinent questions of South Gloucestershire Council, under the Freedom of Information legislation - e.g. the expenditure on repairing street lights (damaged by motorists) over the each of the last three financial years, and the amounts recovered from the offending motorists for each of those years. Then you could report back to us.
By Bland_Media at 23:33 on 19/01/11
ReportThat's a good point @bigmandave - I wonder if they do recover costs - ether from the driver or insurance? On the other hand, if it became more common place you could have drivers suing councils for damage caused by pot-holes!
By Philip_Ruse at 21:40 on 13/01/11
ReportI am sure the Council Tax will increase in April as a guess I would say by around 2-3%. but I am sure that South Glos Council could still make a lot more savings WITHOUT cutting front line services. Just an idea does anyone know if the Council takes any action to recover costs when motorists smash into street lights ect? The number of smashed street lamps I see as a result of a crash yest I never know if they chase the car drivers for the money... anyone know?
By bigmandave at 21:10 on 13/01/11
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