Complete indignation is spreading through the Really Bad Blog household ;-)
... remember I mentioned those 30% rises in some school let charges, which were approved by the Lib/Nat Administration yesterday?
Well, I've just spotted that the annual fee for an 'Allotment Rental' has gone up from £48 to £54 - that's a 12.5% increase ... but it gets worse!
The budget papers clearly state this increase will be applicable from 1st April 2009 - yet we received an invoice on the 22nd January 2009 requesting the new rate of £54 for Jan'09-Jan'10, which we promptly paid several weeks ago!
Official enquiries will be called for as soon as I next meet with the Chief Executive - heads will simply have to roll ;-))
7 comments:
The Chief Executive should be made to personally pay ALL costs involved in refunding allotment holders the extra £6 as his staff have pre-empted the full council's decision. The council should have notify you of the change at least 14 days before invoicing you. This is a serious business where the council officals ,yet again, overstep their authority. Their heads should roll.
Anonymous
Thanks for the comment ...
I wasn't really being serious about caling for an offical enquiry!
... mind you - £6 is £6 :-)
Andrew
It's is the principal not the ammount. The council officals should be held to account for their actions. That bill prempted the council's decision on the increase. This means that council officials were acting without the full authority of the 'City of Edinburgh Council' This is wrong.If you dont think its wrong then why do we need 'councillors' if the council officials just run the city as they feel fit. No point in having a council at all. Cancel all future elections as elected members are redundant.
Anonymous
Of course I think its wrong - and you're quite right, it does need to be pursued ...
... so, I will do so (not through calling for an official enquiry!) by contacting the relevant Senior Officers and asking why this has happened and seeking a full explanation?
If you e-mail me, I'll let you know the response to my questions and/or I'll probably just put it up here on the blog regardless.
Thanks for pushing me on this.
Andrew
May be the scale of this pre-full council approved charges is greater than one would think. How may more people have been charged the 'Proposed' charges for services prior to approval by full council and up to 3 months before the rises are due to take effect.
For example consider the charges on the following spreadsheet.
http://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/internet/Attachments/Internet/Council/Council_tax_and_finance/Council_finance/Council_budget/Proposed%20changes%20to%20charges.xls
for example see the Services for the Community tab on this spreadsheet which also lists the allotment charges.
Thanks for look into this.It is really worthy of a investigation.
There should be something in the operational standing orders which makes 'illegal' for council officials to act in this way.
Anonymous
Just to confirm that I have now initiated a formal request on all of this - and will update the blog on developments in due course.
Andrew
Anonymous
I've now received a response, which does explain what has happened here. Main points:
- the allotment charges for the year are always collected in advance.
- some Councils collect in the Autumn but Edinburgh has always done this in January of each year.
- the principal of rent increases was originally approved by the Council and the allotment strategy Group several years ago.
- the agreement was that increases would continue until 2010.
So, I guess the budget papers were slightly misleading and didn't make it clear that the increases had previously been agreed in principal.
Other points made to me - which as an allotment holder myself, I do acknowledge:
- CEC has invested almost £500K in its allotments over the same period
- a snapshot of the rent levels was seen in 2007 when we did a survey on how plotholders felt about the service: 84% felt the rent levels were about right.
Hope that's all helpful/of interest!
Andrew
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