My local council

It was a crazy use of resources by a Tory controlled council who seemed to employ gung ho fantasists who'd watched too many episode sof the Bill.

But, and it's a big but, I don't know how you could solve the problem of the parents who routinely lie about where they live or what religion they are to get their kids into a particular school without doing some kind of physical check on where they live.

ROund here, for instance, I know of a mum who approached four families offering to pay their council tax for a year if she could use the bill to get her kid into the 'right' primary school...

Now, if she'd submitted that bill as evidence that she lived at address X, how does the council check if they suspect she's lying? Bear in mind I know of one family who 'live' on the same estate - in fact all their post goes to grandma's house, while they live in a flat elsewhere. How do you check up on this? Home visits? Surveillance? Data matching? The nutjobs who shriek big brother at every opportunity will be out, crying at the moon. Some of the self same nutjobs demand that exactly the same tactics are used to detect benefit cheats.

You've got to love Britain. You can get five years for killing a man and eight years for nicking a book. Go figure.

/rant

I'm glad I've got that off my chest.

A decent rant Awayman. And therein lies the rub - we would probably all agree that this sort of wrongdoing needs to be exposed and people punished, but how exactly do you gather evidence without carrying out some form of covert investigation? People won't just admit it. Dog shit on the streets is one of the biggest moans that people have - but how do you catch the offending owners, other than employing an army of dog wardens patrolling every single street - at great public expense - on the off chance they might witness it? In trying to tackle something which the great British public want, councils are once again castigated as spying busybodies interfering in our lives. Go figure.

On a personal level, I would be perfectly happy with a home visit and data matching.

But is a crime actually being committed? or just morally wrong?

I am possibly one of the persons likely to shriek big brother, but not under these circumstances. If I open an account, applied for driving licence, school place, etc, I expect to be checked. certain things we do are bound to invoke a response or some form of checks, that's life, but not followed and watched

i think with cuts on there way a lot of misguided loyalty will turn to anger and resentment

this will more than likely turn to whistle blowing on a scale we`ve never encountered the media will have a feast and the councils suffer an all time low

there is an upside we live 300 yards from one of the best primary schools in kent

which keeps our house price inflated compared with a house outside the catchment area

none of the houses in our immediate area are first time buyers kas in fact all but one of our neighbours are retired

when purchased my first house it was no where near i had lived for that last 15 years with my parents as they was out of my reach
so it does seem the norm

The sooner schools opt away from local Government control the better.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1300589/Parents-fury-town-hall-plans-halal-menus-schools.html


I cannot understand what the feck this has to do with the local authority....the school itself should make the decision, and not some jumped up twerp, who thinks it is a good idea.

Schools I hope in a few years time will no longer be held to ransom by councils, and that all schools will be able to make their own decisions without the interfering busy body do gooders at the local councils.

The comments at the bottom sum it up better than I could.

They are bound to say that now though Davey, after it hit the newspapers.

The power of the press eh?

Anyway it does not matter really, but what does matter is that this was SNEAKED in under the table in the hope to satisfy certain sections of the community, and for the councils to be seen to be pandering.

Well now it has made the news I am sure it will go no further....I bet the councils hate the press with a fashion.

Did not have you down as a sheep Davey........bah.

I may well change me name and me profile...that will confuse some on here....though that is usually easy to do.