If you want to see what people value look where they spend their
time. At this morning’s Council meeting the members of Bolsover spent nearly an
hour considering the impact of opening up the hard shoulder of the M1 to traffic.
Members queued up to tell the professionals from the Highways agency what to do
with their scheme. The truth as we all
know, is that without a proper transport policy whatever you do with the
current roads, king car will choke them, a reality that has eluded this government just
as it eluded the last one.
Ultimately it didn’t really matter, Bolsover DC is not in
charge of motorways, (just imagine), and it was only a consultation. Later on
the agenda came something that Bolsover DC certainly is in charge of; deciding whether
the 4,000 poorest families in the District should continue to get their Council
tax paid in full. Suddenly all those strident voices had nothing to say, they meekly
stared at their beautiful desks. In a re-run of the Poll Tax the Executive of
this Labour-controlled Council wants everyone on benefit to pay about £85. They
weren’t every dissuaded when I pointed out that the costs of collecting this at
£25,000 pa was more than the revenue that the District would receive from it!
The Leader Eion Watts made some remarks about how very sorry he was, and
how dreadful the government was, and then got quite annoyed that I dared to list
some of the 100+ Council’s who are standing up to the Government and are not levying
this tax. He also tried to defend the
Councillors highest basic allowances in the country, which I hadn’t even
mentioned, but you know what a guilty mind is like.
Will they ever smell the coffee?
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