dogboy1

We live near Chelmsford (Essex) in a 3 bed detached property. There are now three of us there due to our recent arrival Charlie (born October 2006) so no single person discount applies.

We pay £127 pounds per month and the house is worth £215k approx.

It seems a lot of money to pay for the service we receive.

I just wondered how much everyone has to pay depending on where abouts they live ,and wheather they think its good value for money bearing in mind in my situation i'm already paying 40% tax on income, Vat , tax on fuel etc.

Cheers,

Dog.

r32

What is concerning is that average Council Tax will be 1500 pounds a year, thats 30 quid a week, how on earth does a pensioner afford that?

chocolate_o_brian

iTrader: (22)

my house is only a smallish 3 bedroomed mid-terrace, not far from the steelworks in scunny actually. i pay around £950 per annum. cant give exact amount, as it changed mid-term after my girlfriend moved into my house, and i thus lost the 25% single occupany discount.

for a house thats worth around £90k, it seems a lot considering what we get for our money. give them credit, the dustbin-men/paper lorries etc are always on time, but you never seem to see any policing round here, but its generally a quiet street me and my boss live on anyway.

i know her mam and dad were recently brought down from band-c to band-b in council tax terms, but pay lots more than we do, on an old fashioned cottage in a small town a few miles away...

andy

^OPM^

My council tax is my single biggest monthly bill-and thats with a 25% discount as being billy no mates i live alone

wrx_yank

none.... im exempt.

Abdabz

£90 a month for me. A terrace house valued at 3 pence and some buttons when they did the initial valuations
I still think £90 a month to have my bin emptied is a bit steep though

OllyK

£102 for a 3 bed detached. We have a loony tunes bin / recycling policy, naff all police and roads in constant needs of repair. However, they seem to be able to find the funds to have at least 1 speed camera on every road in and out of the town.

Scooby Snacks 23

£130p/m for me (category D house in surrey, value circa £250)

davyboy

£157 per month

Gordon_Brown

When Blair goes and I'm in, I propose to; cut your current council tax by 10%. We need to keep the tories out.

Gordon,
CoE.

dogboy1

I wouldn't mind paying the money if the service was better. Our bins only get emptied every two weeks, and even with us re-cycling as much as possible theres always too much rubbish to get in the wheelie bin. This results in the whole estate having hundreds of black bin liners outside their houses for at least 3/4 days before the bin men/women come round. Surely this is a health risk?

MattW

£147 4 bed detached Cat E and we are currently on the market at £280k.

Dracoro

Which in the NL reality means the council tax will go UP by 10% when GB comes in.

RoShamBo

iTrader: (1)

£193 per month

mart360

When the PT was introduced, we were fortunate, the value of our property meant we were only paying £92 A year!!

then things escalated....

now with the poll/councill tax we pay in excess of £140 pcm (diffrent house though)

But the bills could be lower, much lower, its all down to how the daft system worked....

councils usually get an annual budget from HMG,,, however if they come in under budget, then the next year, they only get the under budget amount. The idea from HMG being that it makes the council lean and proves efficiency. However the councils aren't daft, and want as much of the pot as they can
So April to Dec, they spend only what they have to to manage the budget, (good sense), then in January, they see what they have left, then spend spend spend, to ensure that come the annual review, they are in the red, thus forcing HMG to give them more money for the next year. Thats why all streets get repaired in January / Feb

In reality, local councils are no better than hmg, the money dosent get allocated where it should, the best Kudos, PR projects will get money, the areas that need it get left, or minimal funding with hype applied.

Just read the crap that each sector of the council puts through your door, each claims to be the best, and have achieved the most, when in reality, they all have had to work together to achieve the results.

The one that really gets me though, is the budgetary waste, each council has.(stationary / office spending) They lecture us on waste efficiency, but theres often borders on astronomical.

One reason why, accountability, in short they aren't they know that within 7 years they may be out, or they will blame the problems on something else.


Mart

Paul3446

£128 per month, band D Suffolk!

Wurzel

iTrader: (1)

Me 2

flat4

£235 but only because they took forever to value my new house so didn't pay anything for almost 6 months, wishing i'd saved up for when they finally collared me

^Qwerty^

You only have to look through the regional paper (or Guardian) job ads to see why the council taxes are so high.

"West Indian Lesbian Liaison Officer (Grade 5 - review pending)
The purpose of this job (other than to pay you £35k a year), is to ensure that this minority group are properly integrated in to society etc. etc. etc."

Matteeboy

Ouch!
About £1700 a year, house worth about £600k.

davyboy

The money does go to other places too, not just paying for people to work who don't have any work.

Reffro

£81 per month, 2 bed flat , Band C, Bushey - Herts, including single person discount.

TonyG

The last bill was £960 ish p.a for a 3 bed semi worth about £100k in Nottingham, but that's now changed for next year as my Dad has now had to move to a residential home for health reasons and I'm on my own. I fully expect any discount to be swallowed up by the next round of council tax rises.

Matteeboy

Seems like most of you are being well and truly ripped off!

jonnyh

I can tell you how it is spent.

Council bloke this AM has spent the whole morning trimming a small bush. Leaving the engine on his council van running so he can sit in it and warm up every few minutes.

Any normal person would do a proper job in 20mins max.

Also seen them working on a private car (in the council car park, in council time, in council uniform) for 4+ hours.

They also keep very nice hours ie 9:05am to 4:50pm 1hour 10 for lunch. They also get free parking in council carparks for which you or I would have to pay £4+ a day.

Its a total disgrace

Jerome

My boss at work is paying £2000 a year for a 2 bed terraced house in Amersham, Bucks.

dogboy1

Sorry i forgot to add that mine is for 10 months as well. "you get the last 2 months free". i was told by the council.

boxst

£239/month

Steve