What Wandworth council won’t tell you when they say they are freezing next years council tax… Post Reply

[readysteadycook]

As we know, Labour are now running our Council.

We read this week in the Council press release, that council tax is being frozen for next year.

Great news we all might think…  but, =#ebeaddWBC had something of a windfall from the government, but that hasn't stopped them from adding 2% to council tax (they omitted this nugget) for social care and raiding the reserves, even though the windfall was sufficient to remove the need to do either. We also don’t know the Labour Mayors council tax increase, last few years it’s been a whopping 10% (and his amount is half the Council Tax value). These are Questions to ask Wandsworth Labour… 

Also, what Wandsworth Labour won’t tell us is that they started with over £200m in reserves, which they are reducing to £189m in 2024/25. No doubt to be followed by further raids. It’s free money for them!

At the same time, the debt they inherited from the Conservatives was falling to zero, but Labour now want £405m of new borrowing... we will soon turn into the highly indebted Lambeth in a high interest rate environment. The Labour administration costs are also significantly higher than the previous administration. We will be paying for that sooner or later.

School street schemes are continuing at pace. Each one typically costs £10k-£50k. However the new Chestnut grove school scheme is a whopping £150,000 of tax payers money. Even though the majority of respondents didn’t want the full scheme. Our roads will soon be chaos like the Lambeth ones, schemes are coming in slowly by stealth. 

Wandworth Labour will tell you that road improvements are coming ‘all paid for’ by local constructors - don’t be fooled. The constructors will just be passing this cost on to whoever buys their flats and houses. We are paying for all this remember. 

I am sure when it comes to the next elections, people will see how much damage has been caused in a few short Labour years… all because of a protest vote against Boris. 

Who wants to start of with the replies then ?!

[chorister]

Democracy really is wonderful isn’t it - just as long as it comes up with the “correct” answer!

[readysteadycook]

I don’t really care who runs Wandsworth, I am mainly concerned that our money isn’t wasted and at the moment I feel the Labour council are like one of our children in a sweet shop, with lots of money in their pocket.

As most people understand, it’s easy to spend, just not as easy to pay for the spending.

The last Tory administration knew how to waste as well towards the end, especially on all the silly road schemes.

There seems to me, very little way to see what’s being spent and where the accountability is.  One day we will wake up and all the money could be gone like the local Croydon and Lambeth Councils especially.

[SWtastic]

With that amount in reserves, there should be no need to raid them at all as the interest they generate should be more than enough to fund any initiatives, and to invest in social care etc.  We should have the best facilities in London, if finances are managed cleverly.

[Kirstie’s Mom]

Sad but very true . I really don’t care what party manages my borough if they do it well . I have lived inn this borough for over 30 years and can observe that the last 2 years it has gone down dramatically . Litter, reduced services and changes to street layouts that no one wants . I am also appalled that local councillors can abuse and lie about local stores and residents . To me they are interested mostly in their own agenda not what suits the borough . Shame .