YOUR columnist Pinstripe (“Let us have competition to provide local services”, The Herald, September 14) tries to tackle the very complex subject of local government finance and proceeds to make simplistic, one-size-fit-all points.
Competition is the key, apparently. So if you want speedy planning permission, pay extra; but that’s what all the contractors would do and "normal" applications would slide down the ever-lengthening list, so more and more people pay and either you are back where you started or more planners have to be employed, which costs money.
Have your bins emptied as often as you want – never mind health and hygiene issues. It would surely also be reasonable to opt out, get a rebate and fly tip or use public bins in streets or lay-bys.
Choose between two squads of bin emptiers – how will that work outside of the cities? There is simply not enough rubbish to go round in sparsely populated areas.
Pinstripes describes a blanket levy on property value as "admirably simple" but ignores all the problems with property valuation; 10 "identical" houses in a street; some build garages, extensions, conservatories, one has a bigger garden, why should they pay less or more than the neighbours?
What of the elderly spinster who gave up her career to nurse her parents and by so doing, has saved the local authority hundreds of thousands of pounds of care costs? She lives on in the family home and would struggle to pay. Presumably Pinstripe would recommend that she downsizes and moves away from friends, family and other social ties (echoes of the bedroom tax; that other simple system).
David Hay,
12 Victoria Park, Minard, Argyll.
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