Cornwall Council’s plan to impose a new “surf tax” of up to £4,000 on watersports schools is not a good idea. The tax (officially a licence to operate) will be imposed on operators on 13 council-owned beaches with charges rising when on a per instructor basis. The costs of this will... Read more...
I enjoy a good upset victory as much as the next person, but the elevation of Jeremy Corbyn to the position of Leader of the Opposition means that we are going to have to spend time in the months ahead debating things that we thought had been settled by the... Read more...
The Daily Mail published an article on Saturday that suggests that the 'flagship Liberal Democrat policy' of free school meals for all infant school pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2 may be scrapped, saving £600 million, as part of the Government's efforts to wrestle with the deficit. It would... Read more...
Whitehall departments have continued to defy the laws of physics this year; it seems that when it comes to IT expenditure, what goes up doesn’t necessarily come down. Despite funding cuts for Whitehall departments, it appears that the bureaucrats haven’t got over their penchant for shiny new tech, with IT running... Read more...
The news that the Department for Work and Pensions has been conjuring case studies from thin air to justify its sanctions programme was no less depressing for its lack of shock value. Spin is, after all, now endemic across Whitehall. What is surprising is that the DWP felt the need... Read more...
Last Wednesday, Dia and her grassroots team went to Maidstone to speak to as many residents as possible. We encountered with numerous people who were angry at how the council were spending their money on useless schemes and activities. For example, Up to £700,000 was spent on compensation to school pupils over... Read more...
Today, Dia and her team hit the road to Maidstone, Kent to continue the War on Waste Campaign. After a train journey where we went through some pretty towns, we arrived at the historic town of Maidstone. Greeted by cloudy skies, it looked as if the heavens were about to... Read more...
An appeal to the valuation tribunal has significantly reduced the “rateable value” of purpose built GP surgeries, meaning local authorities could be left owing the NHS many millions in backdated business rate refunds. Payments backdated to 2005 could be owed by councils across the country. A ruling earlier this year... Read more...
A budget cut of half a billion; several thousand troops made redundant – what a perfect time for a £1.5bn IT project! Read more...
The European countryside is littered with big, white and expensive wind turbines, and it seems that this comes to little avail. The EU Joint Research Centre’s latest Wind Status Report claimed that 8% of electricity produced in the EU Nations came from windfarms, however, when The Register contextualised these figures... Read more...
Proposal to expand the scope of the council’s refurbishment plan expected to be approved next Wednesday. Despite recently closing nine outlying offices, Newcastle Council cabinet members have decided to ramp up the refurbishment plan of the Civic Centre. Council chiefs decided to swap the current five-year plan, which is limited to... Read more...
The Deal Town Council is planning to spend over £10,000 on new ceremonial robes and regalia, reports Kent Online, claiming that the current robes are in a condition of disrepair. They therefore chose to replace all 13 councillors’ robes and buy 10 male and three female councillor hats and one... Read more...
Beautiful medieval cobble stones were ripped out of the Somerset village of Dunster to make way for plain paving. But the new paving stones caused annoyance among the locals who said they were too smooth and regular—and too blue. Now they are being torn up again to make way for... Read more...
The Telegraph are asking whether we might see the end of National Insurance in the near future to which we can only say "Yes please"! As we've reiterated countless times National Insurance is simply another tax on earnings and only serves to mislead and confuse people on the subject of... Read more...
On Monday @the_tpa hit 10,000 Twitter followers so we thought it was time for a give-away competition. This week you have a chance of winning a collection of books, badges and a TPA bag to put it all in. All you have to do is (1) Follow us on Twitter... Read more...
The Register has reported that although the new £131m e-Referral system has recovered from the problems which forced it to be taken off line, it has still not resolved its issues. Despite being introduced to increase the autonomy of patients over managing their appointments and to reduce the number of... Read more...
Keeping politicians to their pre-election promises is never easy, but there seems to be a chink of light at Bath & North East Somerset Council (B&NES). I attended the Bath City Conference held at the council’s Guildhall and asked a question about cutting city centre council ran parking charges. The... Read more...
During the tenure of Sir Peter Housden, who stepped down as Permanent Secretary to the Scottish government last month, a campaign was launched with the aim to urge people to ‘leave a car when it’s not far’. Ironically, it has been revealed that Sir Peter, in his Chauffeur-driven car, took... Read more...
The Summer Budget was a fiddly affair with sixty policies being implemented.The value to the treasury of each policy can be considered by: Its net value to the treasury – where revenue offsets spending. Its absolute value – ie its cash value. In 2020-21, the net value of all 60... Read more...
Manston Airport is an old RAF airfield on the eastern tip of Kent which, when run as an airport, loses up to £10,000 a day. It has been bought by developers with the intention of converting it into a mixed use business and residential park. Well that all seems reasonable... Read more...
A new TaxPayers' Alliance report, written by leading barrister Francis Hoar, demonstrates significant flaws in Direct Recovery of Debts legislation Principle of the right to justice through the courts, laid down in Magna Carta 800 years ago, at risk due to badly designed legislationDirect Recovery powers would see HMRC given almost unprecedented power over individuals, and oversights in legislation... Read more...
It has come to our attention that an event headed by GovKnow is taking place in order to help local authority persons better their understanding of Parliamentary procedures, with the aim of helping them manage their local governments. The event, to be held on the 10th of November, is about ‘Understanding... Read more...
With HSBC, the UK’s largest bank, and Standard Chartered debating whether to move their domiciles outside of the UK, the chancellor announced cuts to the Bank Levy and a change in its scope at his budget yesterday. What is being briefed as a positive response to competition concerns is in... Read more...
The Chancellor has announced substantial increases in spending in his first Conservative budget, compared to the plans he published in March under the coalition, before the election. Until today, spending was scheduled to stay roughly flat over the next three years, falling slightly from £743 billion this year to £740... Read more...