Quote:
Originally Posted by Taf
The Vale of Glamorgan council charged a fixed fee of £497.50 for THREE YEARS regardless of how many chairs and tables cafés had outside.
From July, ANNUAL licences will cost from £150 for one or two tables with up to eight chairs, to £750 for 11 tables or more with 40 chairs.
The council says the move is to clear pavements for the old and blind.
But if every café and restaurant pays, the pavements will still be full of chairs and tables!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57350370
The great rush to charge us more to recoup pandemic losses has started. |
Many councils have found themselves in the financial doodah after the last 12 months. They've seen a dramatic drop in income and at the same time a dramatic rise in the demand for services. They're expected to have a balanced budget - deficits are not allowed. Some of the larger ones have reserves to draw down but many of the smaller one don't.
The Government may come good on the promise to reimburse local councils for the additional expenditure they've experienced but the last I heard for Leeds City Council they are still £10's millions short and don't seem to be holding out much hope of the money ever arriving and as such have had to base this year's budget on what they know they've got not what they'd like to have. Some of the additional work undertaken has been quite impressive all of which has been done over and above what was expected when the last year's budget was planned in late 2019 and early 2020.
I'm not defending Vale Of Glamorgan, but I'm sure they've looked long and hard at ways to increase income. It's a shame they tried to spin the line about keeping pavements clear instead of being honest about it being an income generator!