What Is Going On In Doncaster?

With a duff of the cap to JuliaM who has already written about this and linked back to the Express article I see that it is now being reported that the police have given up chasing criminals and are now proactively turning their attentions to broad surveillance activities.

To what do I refer?

South Yorkshire Police have issued warning letters that action may be taken against drivers if they leave anything visible in their vehicles. The force has set up a “safer neighbourhood team” that will go around looking into vehicles in the crime hotspots of Doncaster. If this crack unit of crime fighters should spot anything in open site on display in the car, such as a coat, a CD or a chocolate bar they are going to do the following.

1. Make a note of your car, by recording the number plate

2. Use the DVLA’s MOT database to find out yours and your insurers details –
           i. Presumably, they will check that you have an MOT and insurance and if not, expect some action.

3. They will then contact your insurer, to inform them that you have left items on view, which the Express concludes will lead to premiums skyrocketing and the invalidation of some people’s premiums.

What totalitarian tactics! What on earth would possess the police to set their resources towards a scheme of police survailance of innocent people. 


Words very nearly fail me…. or at least they nearly did.  Interestingly, there is a twist.


Doncaster has a Mayor, in fact a recently elected Mayor. His name is Peter Davies and he is an English Democrat, and he has sent shockwaves through the local community (and some national news outlets) when he was elected he immediately cut the Mayors salary from £73,000 to £30,000 and closed the Council’s own newspaper for peddling propaganda courtesy of the taxpayer. He pressed on and is seeking to cut the number of councillors from 63 to 21 in an effort to save a further £800,000. He has axed many of the Mayor’s other perks, including the chauffeur.

He has withdrawn Doncaster from the Local Government Association and the Local Government Information unit saving a further £200,000 and then made the following, almost legendary comment:

"Doncaster is in for some serious untwinning. We are twinned with probably nine other cities around the world and they are just for people to fly off and have a binge at the council’s expense".

With the savings, the Mayor wishes to pass on savings to the taxpayer, and improve local children’s services.

Like most of you, I am not overly familiar with the English Democrats, but, do the new Mayor’s actions indicate to you that he would be the architect of the plan to target and hurt law abiding car owners?  No, this scheme has the hall marks of an entirely different brand of politics.

I think it is clear that think the political drama in Doncaster that has unfurled in recent months has made the Mayor immediately unpopular with the established political classes locally and a few games are being played in retaliation; it is my guess this initiative did not come from the Mayor, but is politically aimed at him.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out – though I am glad I am not a car owning resident of Doncaster today.  As usual it is the law abiding person on the street and in their homes and cars that are the cheif vicims of others pursing political agenda's.

Local Councils Should Be Funded Locally

Update 4:12pm: Daniel1979 humbly requests that you please disregard this post.  I would press delete, but that is not really very fair - I am pretty certain now that the assumptions I based part of the below on are wrong (i.e. proportions of council tax retained locally).  I am not happy with myself for being wrong, I usually reference when possible; however I had something in my head that I had read previously that I either must have mis-interpreted, or would now have proven discredited.  To go into much more detail would be an even more non-sensical and unwarranted ramble. 

But as I got it wrong here I will leave this up, with this acknowledgement that, again "I was wrong"... 

Thanks to Man in a Shed on Twitter I have just seen this article.

Thereis a £2.5bn blackhole in local authority finances, i.e. the difference between predicted costs and expected revenues so taxes.  Council Tax will have to rise so as to pay for this shortfall.

Except, the Scottish Executive has intervened, and with the co-operation of Alistair Darling Scottish Council Tax will be frozen in Scotland, whilst Council Tax in England, and presumably Wales and Northern Ireland will increase on average by £50 per house.

This is unfair, but is legal under the devolution that Labour has imposed upon us all. Scottish councils will have contributed to that shortfall, and under the present system of collection, Scottish Taxpayers should be included in the revenue collection.  If councils are projecting a £2.5bn blackhole then could always cut their budgets, not ask for more cash. This will not happen, and here's why. 

When Council Tax is collected by your local council, nearly all of it then goes up to Westminster, when it is then doled back out to local authorities according to their budgets, and local iniatives. In my opinion, Council Tax should be set by local authorities and kept and spent by local authorities. If a council cuts its costs, and becomes more efficient, it still needs to raise as much revenue in Tax, because about 75%... (Not sure on the current number... I will try to find out and link later)... has to go to Westminster to go into the national pot. There is no real incentive for Councils to be efficient.

If Council Tax and spending was decided locally, Councillors would become accountable for it in local elections, smaller councils could tax less and a "fairer" system would develop because the effects of council tax raises and cuts could be felt and reflected locally, and there would be greater motivation for efficiencies and local people to keep spending in check.  Areas which would favour a higher tax and higher spend policy can have it, where as areas favouring smaller state and taxes could also have that and everybody could be happy.  Some national Government assistance would be needed for grander projects imposed from above, and concerning select councils, but the ratio of tax collected and sent to Westminster could be reversed, at least.

Add to this Conservative proposals to publish Public Expenditure and Top Earners salaries and I believe a situation could develop where by Council Tax could be slashed as wastage and extravagance could be tracked and eliminated. 
 
By placing decision making on Council Tax closer to the Scottish voter, the Scottish voter will receive a benefit that they will be happy for.  Everyone in the UK should be able to take these decisions, but at an even more local level which is fair to all people of the UK.