The "Councils Still Have Plenty of Money" Project

From Metro:-

A cash-strapped Southampton council has hired artist Will Rosie to help people decorate their wheelie bins.

This is the council where the leader said back in November 2010 that

"Some services will be reduced and some will go altogether. We will have to make difficult decisions and we will have to focus on services that are valued most by residents and businesses.".

It doesn't matter how you cut and slice it, if you spend money on an artist to decorate wheelie bins, even if that's 1 penny, then that's 1 penny you can't spend on meals on wheels, parks, pavement repairs or whatever else.

So, here's my proposal to anyone reading: let's find as many of these as we can, and see which councils are really cutting back to the sort of core services they should be providing. Let's see how many are really cash-strapped and how many actually seem to find the money to piss away on projects like this sort of nonsense.

Parking at Work

Some lunacy from Nottingham City Council

Nottingham is so far the only local authority to announce plans to introduce workplace parking levies.

Under the scheme employers with more than 10 spaces will be charged £253 a year from 2012, with the bill set to rise to £350 within two years.

So, someone with an office with 10 spaces will have to pay £3500/year for the privilege of parking inside Nottingham rather than 5 miles outside of the city. You could charge £50/year/staff member and people would begrudgingly pay it. But at £350/year, relocating out of the borough will be a no-brainer.

And why do they need this money?

The money raised will fund part of the city's tram extension, refurbishment of its railway station and bus network - but it has come under fire from local employers and motorists.

We ditched trams earlier in the century because buses do a much better job. Anything a tram can do, a bus can do better. You can reroute them quickly, and because they're non-proprietary, you get competition (unlike trams where you're locked into a supplier).

And why is Nottingham funding the refurbishment of its railway station? Get the railways to cough up for it.

Of course, I'm sure that Nottingham won't cut their 5 twin towns.

Councils Just Can't Nail That Market Thing, Can They?

From The BBC:-

The Lanterns on the Lake festival in Swindon will not be held again because it is too popular, the borough council has said.

The event, at Coate Water, had been held since the early 1990s to mark World Peace Day.

Last summer's festival and this year's event were both cancelled.

Parks manager Martin Hambidge said the festival had grown to such a size it was difficult for his staff and volunteers to manage.

For once, a council provide something people actually want, so they don't continue to run it.

Volunteers also attended on the day, so it was principally just about labour and the fact it took up an awful lot of volunteer hours and a lot of staff hours and we wanted to do different things.

Oh, I see. Never mind what the public want. You don't want to provide that, so you're not going to. You'd rather do the things that you want to do, never mind that people pay you.

Bristol Demands Cabs to be Painted Blue

A city council has told taxi drivers they must paint their black cabs blue, or face losing their licence.

Bristol City Council has demanded 800 Hackney carriage drivers repaint their taxis in 'Bristol Blue' by May 11 next year, and fund the £4,000 cost themselves.

I'm not even sure why they're demanding that Bristol cabs have to be blue. The only thing I associate with Bristol and blue is the blue glass. It's not particularly associated with the city.

A Bristol City Council spokeswoman confirmed that any taxi driver who has not repainted his or her cab by 1 May 2011 will have their license revoked. She added that the council want all cabs to be painted in the same colour so that members of the public can be confident they are travelling in a licensed vehicle.

The thing is that the national standard is black. Someone coming from London or Birmingham is more likely to trust a cab that's black rather than blue.

Idiots.

Twin Towns

This mayor in Doncaster is right on the money:-

THE NEW mayor of Doncaster has hit back at critics who said he'd 'isolated' the town when he scrapped its twin town links.

The mayor is spot on with this. Twinning makes no difference in terms of business.

Mr Davies was asked to explain his decision further at a full council meeting this week. Independent Coun Tony Brown said his decision sent out a worldwide message to towns and cities that Doncaster was 'closed for business'.

Idiot. Most business carried out by businesses is business they get on their own by their own efforts. Despite living in a town twinned with a town in Germany and one in America, I've had no business from either. I did nearly do some business with a business in Minnesota once, though.

The mayor said twinning had nothing to do with business because it was a concept started after the war to foster friendship between towns on the continent at a time when people didn't take foreign holidays.

And probably served a useful purpose of reconciliation and cultural exchange. Then. Today, you can download French rap music, buy bottles of Alsace Gewurtztraminer from Tesco and fly to Prague for less than a train to London.