Sean Woodcock January 25: On the future of local government

Sat 18 Jan, 00:10 (last edited on Sat 18 Jan, 00:13)

Oh dear. Clochmerle over bins now.

Fri 17 Jan, 18:11 (last edited on Fri 17 Jan, 19:24)

Mr Flanagan, thank you for your excellent suggestion.  I may take you up on it.  However, I query when it became the normal behaviour for dustmen to expect tax payers to move our bins on their behalf.    As for down here.  That is correct.  You defensively think it is a slur.  That is up to you.   One always goes up to London and down to the country.  This is even written on the bridges over the train tracks. 
 

Quite aside from my controversial view on my infrequent rubbish collection, the scandal here is that Oxford council wishes to deny democracy by applying to cancel the election. We know that our PM does not like democracy nor the sphere of Westminster, but I am saddened how easily the district council has followed him.  

Fri 17 Jan, 17:54

Who is paying whom? All of us are paying some already jolly hard-working binmen. If someone who calls the world's finest small town  "down here" wants bins collecting from his house, all of us are entitled to expect him to pay for that himself. 

And it's not difficult. Put an ad into the Forum (free). Offer the going rate for someone to make their way up (or down) to Mr Stuart's house, push the bin 50 yards or so at night - and then come  back the following morning to do the same in reverse. Shouldn't cost more than £75 a time (£4,000 a year). A solution that everyone else taking their ideas from the Daily Mail would thoroughly agree with. Free Market at work. Simples. 

Fri 17 Jan, 17:29 (last edited on Fri 17 Jan, 18:01)

Picking up Claire's point, OCC does not have a budget deficit and is in no risk of going bankrupt. It is in a far stronger position than many other county and unitary authorities. The reason that WODC's council tax is low is not because they have lots of assets and investments (any more than any other council) but because the previous administration chose to keep council tax very low but in doing so depleted reserves, which means that WODC is not in a particularly strong position financially. However it is very far from being bankrupt too.

Along with the leaders of all of the district councils in Oxfordshire,  as the leader of OCC I am in favour of becoming a unitary authority. We have written to government to confirm this with the consent of WODC, South and Vale, Cherwell and the City.  The savings that we can make on, for example, bin collections are considerable if we join forces across the county rather than having four different providers, and employing four different teams to manage them in four different offices.  WODC is already looking at combining forces on bin collections with other districts and published a paper that went to the scrutiny committee last week which demonstrated that to do that would be much more efficient and a lot less expensive. There are only 21 counties in the country now that retain the two tier system.  The White Paper makes it clear that the government expects all second tier authorities to be merged into unitaries by the end of this parliament

And by the way, most unitary authorities have localised planning committees so there will be no need for people to go into Oxford for a planning meeting. Plus town councils may also be given greater powers.

I am less convinced about the value of a Mayoral Strategic Authority, but we are working with other counties, in particular Berkshire, to form one.

Fri 17 Jan, 16:59

It was only a few years ago a lot of the services of West Oxfordshire, Cotswolds and Forest of Dean district council services were merged. They were recently split again. Now there'll be new merging. I'm no expert but it seems each district council makes up its own rules. Surely there has to be a potential for cost saving here. Also, it could not be beyond the wit of man to both merge and keep localism.

Fri 17 Jan, 15:15 (last edited on Fri 17 Jan, 15:42)

Interesting to observe where this council bill goes.    My observation is that the rubbish collection is a public service for which I pay a lot.  I am allowed to have a view.  I think the dustmen should collect the bins from where the householder keeps them.   After all, who is paying whom?    Despite this, the overall quality of life is so much better down here.    

Fri 17 Jan, 14:10

You cannot expect the bin service here to be the same as in london. Most people in central London do not have space for wheelie bins, and it would cause chaos if the pavements were covered in wheelie bins. They also cannot have bin lorries crawling down the main road stopping at each house as it would gridlock the whole city. The whole system works differently.

Fri 17 Jan, 13:33

"Doesn’t one’s rubbish and what is optimistically called recycling end up in the same place?"

That WAS the case in Islington when I lived there 25 years ago. It most certainly ISN'T in Oxfordshire now.  The stuff in grey bins goes to an Energy Recovery Facility, where it's turned into energy for about 60,000 homes - diverting about 95% of what would otherwise have gone to landfill. The stuff in blue or green bins goes to a number of destinations  to be composted, reused or recycled. Having weekly collections, while retaining our impressive recycling record, would be almost criminally inefficient. 

Fri 17 Jan, 13:33

That may depend on where you live. I put my bin outside my gate for them to empty, they put it back in the same spot give or take a couple of feet. In most streets in charlbury it's the same, unless you live for example down an alleyway off market Street, when you have to take the bin to the "main road". Likewise where my parents in law live in Staffordshire, you live off the road, you transport your bin to the road. 

Fri 17 Jan, 13:20

It is my observation that the service is less than I received at my previous address.   I did not say I needed a daily rubbish collection.    However, I certainly prefer that to fortnightly.   It’s rather long.  Weekly would be better.  Doesn’t one’s rubbish and what is optimistically called recycling end up in the same place, anyway?   Also the dustmen do not collect and return the bins from their location.   One has to do half their job for them by wheeling it down the road.  

Fri 17 Jan, 10:45 (last edited on Fri 17 Jan, 10:46)

I agree Claire.  Each time there's a change of government, they want change for change sake, nothing to do with benefitting the local populations. 

Fri 17 Jan, 09:26

Just to clarify my understanding of your statement. Rubbish collections in Islington are weekly, unless you live above a shop or a restaurant in which case it is daily. Is that right?  I imagine that not everyone who lives in Islington is blessed with the good fortune to live above a shop or a restaurant so they may have to make do with a weekly collection instead? 

Fri 17 Jan, 09:19

I dont think it’s in our interests to merge the district and council tiers, because West Oxfordshire has the lowest council tax in the county. If we are merged, our tax will go up. Obviously the Councillors of high paying areas want this to happen because it will mean their residents pay less. 

West Oxfordshire has lots of assets and investments which help it keep Council Tax low. Whereas OCC has a massive budget deficit and is at risk of going bankrupt. If the tiers are merged all West Oxfordshire’s assets will presumably  go into this black hole. 

When there are controversial planning applications in Charlbury someone from the Town Council often pops over to Witney to speak at the planning committee, which happens in the middle of the working day. Are our unpaid councillors going to want to go to Oxford to do this?

I cant see any benefit to us at all.

Fri 17 Jan, 07:25

How would daily bin collections here help? It would be absurdly inefficient across a wide rural area, and encourage more waste. Also, the population of the Borough of Islington is twice that of West Oxfordshire. Seems an odd thing to complain about in a rural setting. I imagine Islington has more branches of Nando's, too.

Thu 16 Jan, 21:11 (last edited on Thu 16 Jan, 21:12)

Local government does not work.  It is down to attitude, and I cannot see how passing a bill will change that.   I have just moved here from London.  In London I had all rubbish collected once a day.  That was in Islington, where council tax is lower than here.  Here the dustmen visit every two weeks, on rotation between recyclable and non-recyclable items.  It is ridiculous.  I do not see why this sparse collection is accepted.   I doubt the bill improve this. 

Thu 16 Jan, 21:10 (last edited on Thu 16 Jan, 21:11)

Is the date of the local election being changed?

Wed 15 Jan, 08:38

Here is a link to the English Devolution White Paper for anyone who wants to find out more about the plans and how they will work.

Tue 14 Jan, 19:07

Dear Mr Woodcock

Please could you answer my emails to you dating back to September?

There's a Cas to be made for devolution, and for unitary authorities.  However you cannot devolve power by making it more remote from people.  Why are you replacing district councils with a remote combined authority that nobody wants?

Mon 13 Jan, 19:05

If you think power is too centralised why do you want to get rid of the district? 

Mon 13 Jan, 15:58

As a councillor for 13 years, I know just how hard those involved in local government work for their residents. But local government is not working

For 14 years councils were starved of the funds that they need to provide the services that their communities rely on. The result is…

Long post - click to read full text