This story has popped up on the BBC and it seems to have some relevance here in Tasmania. The first thing you notice is that the idea of a ”referendum on rates” is being referred to. In Tasmania chance would be a fine thing. Here its administrative autocracy, not accountable democracy, that we need to deal with.
Launceston City Council is currently asking ratepayers to put up suggestions for inclusions in the 2013/14 rate year. Yes I’m convinced by that as I’ve seen that all before and the ways the publics input has been serially ignored. This so called BANG THE TABLE consultation process is actually a Claytons Process ... The one you have when you are not really having one. HMMMmmmmm!
Read this BBC story and see what you make of it. I can here the apples and oranges arguments coming out of town halls and council chambers all over. Anyway, tell you Aldermen and Councillors what you think and see where tat gets you!
I’ll see you around the traps,
Roger
[UK] Councils 'dodging democracy' over tax rises – BBC NEWS UK POLITICS ... SEE http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21226239
The government has asked councils to freeze local taxes for a third year running
- Cameron rules out 'mansion tax'
- Council tax freeze plan 'flouted'
- Councils have 'moral duty' on tax
Some English councils are "dodging democracy" by not holding referendums on council tax rises, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has said, Those not freezing council tax should "man up" and consult the public, he wrote in the Daily Telegraph.
Ministers want a third year of council tax freezes, and have said those councils in England raising taxes by 2% or more must hold a public vote.
The Local Government Association said councils were under strain due to cuts.
In an article for the Telegraph, Mr Pickles said some local authorities were "cheating their taxpayers" and warned: "Anybody using loop holes will lose out next year."
He also described council tax as a "stealth tax".
'Reality check'
"The days of the knee-jerk tax and spend hike are over," he said.
He revealed that only about a third of councils had committed to freezing local taxes in the next financial year, despite government calls for restraint.
The government cannot force councils to freeze bills, but it has said they have a "moral duty" to do so rather than raise them in line with inflation.
“If the public believes you've got a sensible case they might well listen. But councils should also stop treating residents with contempt”
Eric Pickles
Ministers have legislated so that any local authority increasing levies by more than 2% must hold a referendum and an authority which loses such a vote would have to revert to a lower increase in bills.
According to the Telegraph, some councils have taken legal advice and are planning to "increase waste and transport costs by more than the cap".
Others have opted to put up taxes by 1.99% - prompting the communities and local government secretary to denounce them as "democracy dodgers" who "need a reality check".
Mr Pickles said he was not opposed to tax rises that would "fund local opportunities", but said authorities must "be straight with people", and win over the public before implementing them.
'Quiet revolutionaries'
"If the public believes you've got a sensible case they might well listen. But councils should also stop treating residents with contempt."
He praised Essex and Greater Manchester councils, which he said had plans to "save millions by improving services".
"Authorities need to ask the right questions," he said.
"Are we doing enough to cut out the waste? Are we doing enough to innovate? Are we putting our people first? Then they will realise cash-strapped taxpayers don't deserve needless tax rises."
The secretary of state added: "A growing band of quiet revolutionaries are starting to heed our call."
Mr Pickles said that 115 councils in England will freeze council tax as of April, out of a total of 351.
Responding to the comments, the Local Government Association said councils had faced bigger cuts than almost any other part of the public sector and these are taking a toll on services.
More on This Story Related Stories
- Cameron rules out 'mansion tax' 07 OCTOBER 2012, UK POLITICS
- Council tax freeze plan 'flouted' 01 MARCH 2012, UK POLITICS
- Councils have 'moral duty' on tax 22 JANUARY 2012, UK POLITICS
- Council tax freeze to be extended 03 OCTOBER 2011, UK POLITICS
- Councils 'may reject tax freeze' 24 NOVEMBER 2011, UK POLITICS
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
It would appear from recent news items in The Examiner (24 Jan. page 5 and 25 Jan. page 4) that our municipal bureaucrats are setting themselves up as censors.
I would prefer that my city not become a laughing stock, that our creative young people such as Eloise Thetford have their work promoted, not restricted, and that the reality of the horrors of war not be glossed over.
Especially, as a ratepayer, I wish that officials towards whose salaries I contribute would stop meddling in matters that they would be better advised to leave alone.
Tim Thorne
Launceston. 7250
It looks like from the Examiner today that there is more to this story “War plaque removed over wording” than immediately meets the eye. What seems to be most worrying thing here is the growing evidence, or is it just a feeling, that Launceston’s GM believes that it is his role to make decisions on cultural and social sensitivities.
If he bothered at anytime to consult with the public in a serious way one might be more inclined to defer to his deemed better judgement.
Let us hope that the city’s Aldermen are possessed of the wisdom to see what is actually going on here and that in the end they will consult with their constituents and represent them. Ill informed knee jerking is just what the city does not need.
For the record here is Alison Andrews’ story in the Examiner if for any reason people missed buying the paper today.
A Smart
War plaque removed over wording http://www.examiner.com.au/story/1257132/war-plaque-removed-over-wording/?cs=95
By ALISON ANDREWS Jan. 24, 2013, 9:52 p.m.
LAUNCESTON City Council workers this week removed a plaque from a war memorial garden nine months after a council artist created it because council officers are worried the wording is offensive.
The plaque taken away was one of two at either end of the rose garden in Launceston's Kings Park, which will be officially opened early next month as the first Northern Tasmanian memorial to the Tasmanian World War II 2/40 AIF Battalion.
The two storyboard-style plaques were designed and created in collaboration with the surviving 15 members of the 2/40th.
The plaques are designed to work as pointers to a website that will carry the stories of the battalion's hard war rarely heard before.
But Launceston City Council general manager Robert Dobrzynski said that the offending plaque had been taken down because it contained photographs of ``contemporaneous newspaper reports''.
``On installing them council officers raised some concern about the material on the second panel and questioned whether it was an appropriate sentiment for a place of remembrance,'' Mr Dobrzynski said.
Aldermen will now decide whether the wording is appropriate after being briefed by Greens Beach man Rod Stone, who has raised funds and campaigned for the memorial garden for nearly two years.
Mr Stone's father was one of the few members of the 2/40th Battalion to come home after World War II, surviving fierce fighting and some of the toughest conditions as prisoners of war in places like the Burma Thai railway, Hellfire Pass and the Japanese coalmines.
The 2/40th lost 264 men in World War II - 74 in battle and 191 in captivity.
Mr Stone has been called to explain the wording of the removed plaque to council aldermen at next Tuesday's meeting.
Mr Dobrzynski said that the horrendous cruelty in the Pacific theatre of World War II had been well documented elsewhere.
``When war monuments were erected around Tasmania and Australia after the Great War the communities that built them already knew all too well what had occurred - they made a distinction between a place of remembrance and contemplation and actual recording and setting down the details of what occurred elsewhere,'' he said.
Mr Stone said that he was disappointed that it had taken nine months for council officers to question the wording on the plaque that had been designed and made on site by council artist Stalley Britton under the direction of parks department director Niall Simpson in consultation with Mr Stone.
Some of those with whom Mr Stone checked the wording and design of the plaque included the 15 remaining 2/40th members.
As well there was Tasmanian historian Peter Henning who wrote Doomed Battalion , the story of the 2/40th, Launceston Mayor Albert van Zetten and former Launceston MLC and mayor Don Wing, who both speak on the video of the history website to be launched in conjunction with the memorial garden. Mr Stone also sent a copy for approval to the curator of the Kanchanaburi war museum on the Burma-Thai railway, Rod Beattie, and Royal Tasmanian Regiment president Graham Alomes.
