In Abingdon Library there is a poster advertising a consultation on the future of children’s services in Oxfordshire – that is the proposed closure of all Oxfordshire’s 43 Childrens Centres.
There are also papers on further Budget saving options for 2016/17. There are 92 items that could be cut to produce savings. They include:
- Remove the real time bus information service to save £140,000 annually.
- Remove subsidised bus services and save £1,220,000 annually.
- Reduce street lighting maintenance and save £920,000 annually.
- Cut the number of waste recycling centres to save £205,000 annually.
- Reduce maintenance of footpaths to save £40,000 annually.
- Stop the funding of the seven Health and Wellbeing centres (used by the elderly) to save £2,050,000 annually.
- Reduce support for the homeless to save £1,500,000 annually.
There appears no end to the possible cuts. The Oxfordshire Consultation website has more information.
Goodness…those cuts and austerity are really going to start to smart, when it’s not just the flotsam and jetsam of society being affected. Still it was a big majority the blues won by…so it wasn’t unexpected.
No matter what ones political persuasion is I can’t see anyone agreeing or voting for any of these cuts? Simple answer is ” how much would our council tax have to increase by in order to stave of these cuts?”
The above comes to a little shy of £6m. How many council tax bills are there in Oxfordshire? 1 million?
If we did not have to send the five hundred and fifty million a day to the EU we could support our services with this. We are also sending millions in foreign aid to other countries for services. A refugee from Somalia commenting on the millions that have been pledged to Africa to stop the migrants said it will be all spent by African governments on weapons. The blues have always been for tax concessions to the rich by robbing the poor.
Presumably you’d also give up the tax revenues that we receive which are associated with and outweigh the money we provide to the EU and also the grants that UK businesses and institutions receive directly from the EU.
I’m afraid it’s lazy thinking to blame every issue in our country (many of which are global) on our membership of the EU and our foreign aid budget.
Just one item.
It will cost far more to clean up fly-tipping than they will save by closing a recycling centre!
1 Remove the real time bus information service to save £140,000 annually.
We survived without that kind of display for decades so we can live without it now.
2 Remove subsidised bus services and save £1,220,000 annually.
Many pensioners are able bodied people with plenty of cash income who own and drive new cars – often one each in a couple. I know people who use this kind of service and drive from home then park their cars by the bus stop and get on the bus for the rest of the journey and pay nothing.
Means testing this kind of thing would be smarter.
3 Street lighting maintenance
LED light fittings in street lights are expensive up front but the longer term cost to maintenance is low as they last so long.
No way. I have paid taxes and contributed to society all my life. The UK is the second contributor to foreign aid coming only second to the US. I resent my taxpayers money being sent abroad whilst the UK is becoming a third world country. Homelessness is rising rapidly in the UK. Why should pensioners who have worked hard and paid taxes in the country suffer? The UK is known as the honey pot of the world.
I think many people in the UK think the recession is nearly over. In the public sector, much of the planning has been done, but they are yet to move into implementation. You can expect total meltdown in public services over the next five years and a rise in unemployment. We have to cut our cloth and reduce the deficit, but the tsunami is yet to arrive.
…I think I just found out that there’s about 283,000 households in Oxfordshire….so, its about 40p a week (each household) to cover the cost of all the above.
I await Nicola Blackwood’s input into this serious issue for our area — arguably the most pressing Abingdon issue.
I would like to witness our MP’s mettle, leadership and stance on this, and to see just why we voted her in.
Rachel at 7.
This is a sweeping statement and not at all representative of the position of senior citizens in this country.
Most of us are one income (I.e.) pension households.
The vast majority of us are living on just a pension with NO benefit support.
The vast majority of us have worked full time for up to 45 years and paid taxes during that time, and continue to do so.
We are the war time or immediate postwar generation who suffered ‘real’ hardship. poverty and deprivation I’m the 1940s and 1950s.
Would you remove from these people (including me!) their oy means of getting about?
Remember also that it is my generation who contribute vastly to the army of volunteers who give their time freely to help out at the support organisations without which this country would not survive.
Very few of us are able to live the multi-holiday lifestyle that is attributed to us!!
Oh; is that why she was voted in?
P.S. I wish I could afford an old car, let alone a new one! But I would willingly pay a bit more on my Council Tax if it would help to maintain the essential services.
40p a week extra Cassandra and we’ll be able to keep the barest minimum of stretched services we have….as well as keep paid off/retired council executives in the lifestyles their six figure sums provide.
It is really important that people reply to the consultation – and if possible lobby their County Councillor as well – comments on here won’t get through to them when they come to make the decisions, but thousands of replies and letters just might make a difference…
I agree with a lot of what Cassandra says about pensioners.Presumably they want those of who do have cars to clog up the roads by using them more.I wonder if Rachel had been brought up on the days of rationing and real austerity she would have the same attitude.
Think the aim of socialism that gave us the welfare state and the NHS has gotten somewhat lost? It’s absurd that he likes of Richard Branson can receive a state pension while sunning himself on Necar Island, or Alan Sugar and a the “older ones” on Boars Hill should get a free TV licence, similarly those retired peeps fortunate enough to receive and abuse their bus passes by seeing how far they can travel for free! We do need to reel in all this nonsensical spending and get back to funding the essentials like making sure my 96 year old aunt can afford to hear her house this year and the homeless guy living in a tent in the woods opposite the Anchor gets a roof over his head. Oh and did I read it right? 30%, yes 30% of our council tax goes to fund our local authority officers pension!
Hey. Mr Hudspeth I’m not alright, so don’t pull up the ladder !
Just to clarify, no-one over 75 will get a free TV licence because those costs have been applied as a further saving to the BBC. They are currently implementing 20% cuts and paying for OAP licence fees will be a further 25% cut. It doesn’t matter if it is social care, children’s centres, healthcare, the BBC – the scale of the cuts will lead to a significant reduction against existing levels of service. We need to make savings, but just don’t expect what you had previously; that’s totally unrealistic.
On children’s centres – that is a real worry because where will that work go? The answer, of course, is a combination of the new reduced service, schools and an increase in issues in problems in the home environment. I worry with this on whether we are simply pushing the problem elsewhere or further down the line. We’ll see.
Agree with most is this (apart from Janet – we are nowhere near a 3rd world country and absolutely need to help out abroad).
I’m finding it hard to imagine how real-time bus displays cost £140,000 per year?
Derek. I take it that you do not want to help the homeless in the UK? Oxford and Reading have a real problem with people with nowhere to live. Food banks report that they cannot cope with the number of people in the UK who are forced to use their services. Many more pensioners will die through cold related illnesses as they cannot afford to heat their homes. Apparently this does not concern you as this is in the UK
Daniel, isn’t a peculiar trait whenever the public pot needs to be pruned it’s always frontline, point of service that takes the brunt, never the top heavey administration? Take the Vale for instance, around 8 years ago the then CEO brought together the vale and SODC in the name of streamlining the two councils by joint administration, he pretty much write his own massive redundancy package along with a massive pension stating his post was no longer necessary ! But we still have a ceo ( as dos SODC ) why? Council tax funds Thames Valley Police, look at the whooping package the chief constable gets? Ditto his assistant and the deputy to the assistant
What’s needed is a Unitary Council, they work very well in many other regions,
It’s a first – something I agree with Steve upon!
…do you not both agree that the flowers have looked great this year?
Thank you Iain, for those who don’t know what a unitary council is, it’s basically this, the entire middle section ( I e the district councils ) are abolished and a new regime is created whereby the old borough councils and all that they represented is recreated and the “stuff” they’re not tasked with falls to the county councils thus the vale would be abolished altogether which when you think about it is not such a big deal?
So why do we need the vale? What do they do?
1, planning, apart from enforcing local plans most of their brief is from central government, they could operate autonomously from a ports cabin !
2, education? Nop, that’s the county councils domain as is health.
3, policing? Well the vale via council tax collected tvp’ revenue, but that could easily become the remit of OCC as is fire/ emergency services.
4, Environmental health is similar to education/ health in that most of the goal posts are set by central government. Sololeplannong they are pretty much autonomous too as is health and safety
5, why do we need a district council? Well they administer social housing according to central government guidelines, they collect council tax, er? That’s about it,,roads highways, education, health, infrastructure is all the remit of occ, parks graveyards, parks are all town council,
The reason the vale amalgamated with SODC was purely to crate an administrative conglomerate so big it couldn’t be disbanded by county council ! West Oxford fx has done the same with Cotswold too !
Janet, I never said that overseas aid should be at the expense of UK charity, and as an active supporter of the local foodbank, I see the need for these too.
I do not condone aid being hived off for weapons, but safeguards can be put in place by careful selection of the channels used. If we are known as a generous nation, that is something to be proud of.
OCC received a report from Ernst & Young (I think) earlier in the year identifying that there were cost savings of between £10 and £30m associated with moving to unitary authority.
All the district authorities promptly came out against the idea of their abolition. I’m sure this has no link to the elimination of the roles of the cluncillors and senior officers in charge. I could find no reference to the idea since January. It’s sad that front line services are being threatened by a lack of strategic leadership from our councillors.
Sorry for typo
It is absolutely vital that as many people respond to the consultation on Children’s Services as possible.
There was a vote at the last County Council meeting that the Conservative administration won by a majority of only two that called for a solution that avoided closing all the centres down.
I have argued that the cost of the buildings themselves is a relatively small part of the budget, and that if they allow a reasonable amount of time we may well be able to find charities, voluntary and community groups and others who may be able to help maintain some of the services based at the centres.
(This is similar to when they planned to close most libraries a few years ago but were eventually persuaded to switch to a volunteer model.)
I think that everyone is in agreement that there is currently not enough money available to continue exactly as we are now without increasing council tax.
1, Removal of realtime bus information. This is an easy saving, we have managed for years without it & can do so again. This would be the easiest cut, just switch it off! But it is also the smallest saving, but a saving is a saving.
2,Bus services. These are an essential service to a number of elderly people. But it is also abused by others, some sitting on busses for the day just for a day out. Why not turn the bus passes into “Oyster “style cards which can only be used for X amount of trips per week or month? Any extra trips could be paid for.
3,Street lighting maintenance, For once I agree with Rachel above. LED lighting is initially expensive, but a big saving over time. They have already started to implement this in some areas of Abingdon. Also, why not put every other street light on a timer? Come on when it gets dark, but switches off at Midnight. This would save money on electric, and be eco friendly.
4, Recycling centres, again agree with earlier comments, the cost of clearing up fly tippers would far out weigh the costs of the recycling centres.
The suggestion to have a unitary council is a MUST. This is a time when Town & County Councillors need to stand up & do something positive for Abingdon. We worked well as a borough and can do again. More power brought back to local councils.
Where do you stand on unitary authority Neil?
Er, silent I guess Iain ?