Grant for parish councils cut (From Gazette)

Well, well, well.

I see that not one of the clique (aka Cabinet) members comes from one of the rural areas that will be affected by this crass decision.

Barton (Shrub End), Feltham (New Town), T Young (St Andrews), Turrell (Mile End), Hunt (Christchurch), Smith (St Johns), Bourne (St Andrews) and B Oxford (Highwoods).

It's about time the full council voted on something as draconian as this, not just the little group that regularly make poor decision in the name of the Council!!

Colchester Council knew repeated cuts in government funding would happen up to 2015 and recent government statements suggest to 2018. It is grossly unfair to almost completely remove parish council funding when Colchester Council could easily cut out their expensive status seeking delusions.
.
Councillors have to face financial reality and accept the "cultural quarter" concept is dead. Time to cut the funding to the Firstsite leeches and try to make money from abandoned but useable buildings such as James/Roman House buildings in Queen Street. There are council assets that earn no income and could be leased out such as the land by the river near Spring lane roundabout. Perhaps the sale of Tymperleys could be done again properly this time without excluding certain bidders!
.
A first step would be to accept an across the board reduction in councillor allowances. Do councillors really need the latest tablet computers bought by the taxpayer? Could councillors pay for car parking behind the town hall or better use the bus services!
.

Ontheball wrote:
Well, well, well.

I see that not one of the clique (aka Cabinet) members comes from one of the rural areas that will be affected by this crass decision.

Barton (Shrub End), Feltham (New Town), T Young (St Andrews), Turrell (Mile End), Hunt (Christchurch), Smith (St Johns), Bourne (St Andrews) and B Oxford (Highwoods).

It's about time the full council voted on something as draconian as this, not just the little group that regularly make poor decision in the name of the Council!!

Ontheball, you belie your name. The story clearly states that the decision will be approved by the full council in February. You surely know that the rural wards are represented by Tories who lost power in 2008 following their decision to build the VAF on the bus station. They will oppose this decision but they will fail because they will be outnumbered.
The decision is no more draconian than various others that the coalition has implemented.
I share your dislike of our inept and arrogant council, but the fact is that they were democratically elected. And if the Tories took over, their past ineptitude proves that they would be no better.
If you want to blame someone, blame the present government coalition at national level, which has quite unnecessarily chosen to force local authorities to impose massive cuts, rather than balance its budget in other ways, for example by making the tax dodgers pay their fair share.

Hardly surprising is it, do we honestly expect those lazy big boys to take a cut........perish the thought? Maybe the same percentage of cuts could be applied to the main body by getting rid of some of the deadwood?

Oh dear what a shame! Hang on a sec though. When a cut was made in the parish grants last year don't I remember reading that Colchester is one of the very few councils left that still makes a grant to Parish Councils? So Colchester is just catching up then.

PS - Mile End is partly parished