A Letter to the Editor from Ali WILKINS of Scarborough on the ever-contentious subject of Scarborough Borough Council’s approach to Council Tax – and exposing the reversed logic propagated by Councillor John NOCK [Con.] when he had the opportunity to talk some sense (at last) in Cabinet.
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Dear sir,
At the last Cabinet meeting, Councillor Nock stated that the £10k court costs was still owed by the Save the Futurist group to the Council. To emphasize the size of this amount, he said that it was:
- “equivalent to the net Council Tax for 36 Band D properties and we should have that money to provide essential services.”
Cllr Mallory said she was disappointed.
This pearl of Cabinet wisdom made me think: What if you applied this formula to more significant Council losses/expenditure?
The figures are quite startling!
14,400 Band D properties net Council Tax = £4m for the demolition of the Futurist.
18,000 Band D properties net Council Tax = £5m spent on the OAT.
360 to 720 Band D properties net Council Tax = £100k to £200k every year for the OAT subsidy.
14,400 Band D properties net Council Tax = £4m spent on the SJT.
421 Band D properties net Council Tax needed to subsidise the SJT to the tune of £117k every year.
1,800 Band D properties net Council Tax = £500k for the demolition the Indoor Pool.
And a whopping 32,400 Band D properties net Council Tax = £9m the unsecured loan/investment to Benchmark for the Waterpark.
Now this makes the 36 Band D bet Council Tax look a tad pale in comparison, yet the ruling party (reading from a script) continue to roll out this £10k at every available opportunity whilst feigning a surprised look. “This was awarded to us and it has not been paid!”
I would be much more worried about equivalent to 82,141 Band D properties Council Tax paid out on non-profit subsidies and costs. Add-in the annual pay-out figures equivalent to 1,141 Band D properties Council Tax – which is a staggering 32 times the 36 the Cabinet is bleating about. And this is only the subsidy to the SJT and the OAT.
I am far more than disappointed!
I dare say the £10k will be long gone before any profit is made on the huge investments SBC has made on our behalf.
We deserve better than this.
Regards,
Ali Wilkins.
Ali WILKINS, Seamer, Scarborough. 27th March, 2018.
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