Council Revenue Ideas (Merged)
-
Posts
-
Just merged this in the original thread as it was first proposed back in June – There is an Executive Board meeting this week with it on the agenda so I guess thats where its been picked up from.
Surely this must be about the total spend of £227m and what is done with all that money as part of a single plan. Taking items in isolation, such as car parking, won’t resolve the counties challenges …let’s hope for a strong debate on the web posting of the Council meeting
The Council spends money attracting visitors to the County and then in the next breath wants to charge car parking to deter people staying awhile!
@wxm 14346 wrote:
Surely this must be about the total spend of £227m and what is done with all that money as part of a single plan. Taking items in isolation, such as car parking, won’t resolve the counties challenges …let’s hope for a strong debate on the web posting of the Council meeting
Quite agree with this. I expect the Council to come at this from both directions, indeed several directions. On a micro basis, I would expect the Council to be looking at intelligent ways to raise revenue and intelligent ways to save on expenditure on specific things regardless of a plan. Looking at the picture on a broader basis, I would hope that they would be looking at whole areas of spend and whole areas of revenue raising, comparing both with comparable Councils, making efficiencies where appropriate and raising revenue where possible (and intelligent).
It is the latter that I know Wxm thinks should be part of a coherent plan and this seems logical
I know the council are in a financial stranglehold but their focus seems to be on raising revenue from the facilities which they provide. We get nothing for nothing, but it must be borne in mind that we have already paid a not inconsiderable amount through general taxation and council tax for these services to be provided, and if charges have to be made they should be as low as possible and not to screw us for every penny they can get out of us. As stated above there is not much point in attracting visitors if they are then discouraged from staying and spending money in our town.
It’s been said before but why don’t the Council consult more on ALL their expenditure with the people who actually provide the funding in the first place – those who pay rates and taxes and pay fees for some services . Surely we all have a right to our say..
@johnhoppy 14351 wrote:
I know the council are in a financial stranglehold but their focus seems to be on raising revenue from the facilities which they provide. We get nothing for nothing, but it must be borne in mind that we have already paid a not inconsiderable amount through general taxation and council tax for these services to be provided, and if charges have to be made they should be as low as possible and not to screw us for every penny they can get out of us. As stated above there is not much point in attracting visitors if they are then discouraged from staying and spending money in our town.
Well said. I would go further. There is no point paying lots of people in the Economic Development department to encourage Economic Development, if then they go and charge penalising Car Parking fees in order to pay for the Economic Development Department. This is convoluted logic given the impact on the local economy. The same goes with spending lots of money courtesy of the Destination Wrexham idea if then Car Parking charges are bumped up to pay for the costs. This moving around of money to pay for paper to be shuffled from A to B has to end if the cost of the shuffling begins to outweigh the benefits gained. I do hope that common sense prevails this week as a greater focus on the Council’s budget occurs
The scale of the committee papers, 60 or more pages for 2 to 3 hours, cannot do justice to all the subjects that are raised. An organisation spending £227m must surely find more effective ways to manage such responsibilities and spending. Other organisations spending the equivalent amount of money do not have such large, costly and cumbersome structures.
If the community does not change these structures, we will run out of money just as the financial system did five years ago.
I do hope the income figures from the proposed introduction of car parking charges at a number of country parks in the County Borough is based solely on car usage and does not rely on income from penalty tickets. Wrexham is open for business and wants as many people as possible to visit, stay and spend , hope Councillors don’t vote to do anything that will discourage this!
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
