Too Hot wrote:
You are missing the point. The council don't collect car tax - the government do. The money is not (and never has for that matter) being spent where it should be - on the roads.
tomu wrote:
This WAS a freak occurrence and it happened towards the end of the tax year. So they will have already spent the money last year.
The roads departments in all the councils will doubtless be asking for an increase in next year's budget to pay for this (remember last year's budget was spent on the normal things, normal levels of road maintenance, equipment maintenance, grit etc). Depending whether the councils grant it, when the new budgets are allocated in April you will probably see the work start.
But basically: all the things you want your council to do cost money. This was an unexpected event they hadn't budgeted for. They did not have the money sitting around to pay for it, because they already spent it on all the other things you want them to do.
kentswingers777 wrote:
That is all well and good BUT..........where has my money gone btw £218 I spent two days ago on a years road tax for my car?[blah]
[blah] Because all councils and governments are under pressure to only tax what they really need, and most (all?) of them are running deficits, it's simply not going to be possible for them to bank up massive contingency funds against freak occurrences.
tomu wrote:
[blah] If you want the council to have been able to have a load of money saved up against freak occurrences they weren't expecting... I presume you'd be happy to pay a higher rate of council tax then? No, thought not. There's no sense complaining about taxes on one hand, and then complaining about the lack of tax spending on the other. Which do you want? Potholes, or no potholes?[blah]
[blah] If you want the council to have been able to have a load of money saved up against freak occurrences they weren't expecting... I presume you'd be happy to pay a higher rate of council tax then? No, thought not. There's no sense complaining about taxes on one hand, and then complaining about the lack of tax spending on the other. Which do you want? Potholes, or no potholes?[blah]
That is all well and good BUT..........where has my money gone btw £218 I spent two days ago on a years road tax for my car?[blah]
This WAS a freak occurrence and it happened towards the end of the tax year. So they will have already spent the money last year.
The roads departments in all the councils will doubtless be asking for an increase in next year's budget to pay for this (remember last year's budget was spent on the normal things, normal levels of road maintenance, equipment maintenance, grit etc). Depending whether the councils grant it, when the new budgets are allocated in April you will probably see the work start.
But basically: all the things you want your council to do cost money. This was an unexpected event they hadn't budgeted for. They did not have the money sitting around to pay for it, because they already spent it on all the other things you want them to do.
You are missing the point. The council don't collect car tax - the government do. The money is not (and never has for that matter) being spent where it should be - on the roads.
No, I'm not. Ok, whoever collects car tax and whoever pays for the maintenance of the roads, the point is the same: it was a freak occurrence, they didn't have the money saved up to pay for it because they haven't got the money spare to save up huge piles of spare money in case freak occurrences occur.
If you want your government, local or national, to have the money sitting around to instantly respond to any unexpected and costly event that might happen, then you will have to pay much more in tax.
I don't know how I can make this any clearer. If you travel to work on a bicycle, and you get paid every month on the 1st, and you have to spend all your money on food and rent, as well as the occasional inner tube... and sometime around the 24th of the month your bicycle spontaneously transforms itself into an onion... you probably don't have the cash sitting by to buy a new bike. So what are you going to do for the next few days? Walk to work until you save up for a new bike, that's what.
Kenty, if you paid your road tax yesterday, that's very nice for you, but that money does not immediately go into the pot for pothole fixing. Budgets are allocated in April.

