Glad I don't live in the Argyll And Bute council area

[BCram]

It dosent, putting taxes up means they waste more.

Well that's our fault for electing numpties!

[Returnofrros]

Is quite happily have services down to a bare minimum and anything you want over and above you pay for or do it yourself.

IE bins emptied once a week £100 per year

Fortnight £60

Once a mth £40

Just pay for roads, street lighting etc through a community charge system......everything else is pay as you go or DIY.

If I was band F G or H I'd be raging at the waste

[Returnofrros]

Why is the local rates so cheap in Spain and canaries yet streets are cleaner, better lit and roads in the main areas are first class.

[BCram]

Is quite happily have services down to a bare minimum and anything you want over and above you pay for or do it yourself.

IE bins emptied once a week £100 per year

Fortnight £60

Once a mth £40

Just pay for roads, street lighting etc through a community charge system......everything else is pay as you go or DIY.

If I was band F G or H I'd be raging at the waste

Interesting concept. Would you expect the services to be provided by the councils as at present, or by private contractors?

[BCram]

Why is the local rates so cheap in Spain and canaries yet streets are cleaner, better lit and roads in the main areas are first class.

Don't know. It must be worth finding out. Most countries we choose to compare ourselves with have Nordic influences and are based on higher basic taxes. Could be part of our problem.

[islaydarkblue]

I thought second homes were going to be taxed at twice their rateable value. Probably got the wording wrong but I am sure I read somewhere that people who have a second home will face increased charges on their second home.

Second homes are being charged double council tax based on their council tax band.
It was Patrick Harvie who brought in this rule but as usual he has not done his homework.
People who rent out properties as short term holiday lets register for the ‘flagship’ Scottish Government Small Business Bonus Rates Scheme (SBBRS), resulting in them not paying business rates or council tax as their rateable value for business rates is below the limit for being charged business rates.
The owners of these short holiday term lets only pay for the uplift of their business waste which is every week in the Argyll and Bute Council area.
Meanwhile the Argyll and Bute Council taxpayers get their General waste bin emptied once every three weeks. In the Summer months the smell from the Council bin lorries as they near the end of their route is overpowering.
If every second home owner in the Argyll and Bute council area sold their house to a person who then operated it as a short term holiday let Argyll and Bute Council would lose a lot of money.
I do not know how many second home owners there are throughout the Argyll and Bute Council area but I would assume that there are in excess of 1,000.
1,000 second home owners paying £2,000 council tax during the current 2023/24 council tax year which ends on 31st March 2024 would result in Argyll and Council finance department receiving £2 million.
Double council tax from 1st April 2024 would result in the Argyll and Bute Council finance department receiving £4 million plus the latest 10% council tax increase which will result in a total amount of £4,400,000 being raised from second home owners.
If all the 1,000 second home owners sell their homes to people who then operate them as short term holiday lets registered for the SBBRS, Argyll and Bute Council will lose the £4,400,000 in the second homes council tax they have budgeted for.
In my opinion if this happened it would serve the Argyll and Bute councillors right for voting in favour of the 100% council tax surcharge for second home owners. It is optional whether local authorities throughout Scotland implement this 100% surcharge or not.
The greedy Argyll and Bute Councillors will in my opinion pay a very heavy price for their decision to charge double council tax for second home owners in the Argyll and Bute Council area.
The house next door to our house on Islay is let out as a short term holiday let.
I told the owner that letting their house out for short term holiday lets was no good for the island of Islay. If the current population which is around 3,000 continues to fall there comes a tipping point where the number of GPs on Islay is reduced and the dentist decides to leave due to a lack of patients.
There is no longer a resident optician on Islay after the previous excellent optician died from a brain tumour.
The new optician is based in Oban and comes to Islay about once every four weeks providing the Calmac ferry is sailing and not cancelled due to windy weather or sea swell.
Too bad if you have eye problems or a problem with your spectacles in the intervening period.
It does not surprise me that Patrick Harvie has made a hash of his double council tax law for second home owners throughout Scotland.
I have an email from Patrick Harvie which stated the wrong information about who is responsible for the installation of Smoke Control areas throughout Scotland.
It is not difficult to find this information even for Patrick Harvie!

[BCram]

Second homes are being charged double council tax based on their council tax band.
It was Patrick Harvie who brought in this rule but as usual he has not done his homework.
People who rent out properties as short term holiday lets register for the ‘flagship’ Scottish Government Small Business Bonus Rates Scheme (SBBRS), resulting in them not paying business rates or council tax as their rateable value for business rates is below the limit for being charged business rates.
The owners of these short holiday term lets only pay for the uplift of their business waste which is every week in the Argyll and Bute Council area.
Meanwhile the Argyll and Bute Council taxpayers get their General waste bin emptied once every three weeks. In the Summer months the smell from the Council bin lorries as they near the end of their route is overpowering.
If every second home owner in the Argyll and Bute council area sold their house to a person who then operated it as a short term holiday let Argyll and Bute Council would lose a lot of money.
I do not know how many second home owners there are throughout the Argyll and Bute Council area but I would assume that there are in excess of 1,000.
1,000 second home owners paying £2,000 council tax during the current 2023/24 council tax year which ends on 31st March 2024 would result in Argyll and Council finance department receiving £2 million.
Double council tax from 1st April 2024 would result in the Argyll and Bute Council finance department receiving £4 million plus the latest 10% council tax increase which will result in a total amount of £4,400,000 being raised from second home owners.
If all the 1,000 second home owners sell their homes to people who then operate them as short term holiday lets registered for the SBBRS, Argyll and Bute Council will lose the £4,400,000 in the second homes council tax they have budgeted for.
In my opinion if this happened it would serve the Argyll and Bute councillors right for voting in favour of the 100% council tax surcharge for second home owners. It is optional whether local authorities throughout Scotland implement this 100% surcharge or not.
The greedy Argyll and Bute Councillors will in my opinion pay a very heavy price for their decision to charge double council tax for second home owners in the Argyll and Bute Council area.
The house next door to our house on Islay is let out as a short term holiday let.
I told the owner that letting their house out for short term holiday lets was no good for the island of Islay. If the current population which is around 3,000 continues to fall there comes a tipping point where the number of GPs on Islay is reduced and the dentist decides to leave due to a lack of patients.
There is no longer a resident optician on Islay after the previous excellent optician died from a brain tumour.
The new optician is based in Oban and comes to Islay about once every four weeks providing the Calmac ferry is sailing and not cancelled due to windy weather or sea swell.
Too bad if you have eye problems or a problem with your spectacles in the intervening period.
It does not surprise me that Patrick Harvie has made a hash of his double council tax law for second home owners throughout Scotland.
I have an email from Patrick Harvie which stated the wrong information about who is responsible for the installation of Smoke Control areas throughout Scotland.
It is not difficult to find this information even for Patrick Harvie!

Brilliant reply. Islay. You should be running things!

[islaydarkblue]

Don't know. It must be worth finding out. Most countries we choose to compare ourselves with have Nordic influences and are based on higher basic taxes. Could be part of our problem.

There are too many local authorities throughout Scotland with their management being paid 6 figure salaries who have nobody to answer to.
This breeds a couldn’t care less attitude in local authorities which spreads throughout the whole of the staff.
Why should staff being paid a low wage knock their pan in if their bosses who are being paid a far higher salary are not carrying out the job they are employed to do to the best of their ability.
The local authority councillors should be ensuring that their residents receive a decent service for their council tax but a lot them don’t bother.
As a result local residents do not report potholes and street lights not working and so it goes on.
On Islay every street lighting pole has a reference number stamped on it so it is not difficult to report when a street light is not working.
I used to report street lights not working by taking a note of the reference number of the street light when I was out waking our dog(s).
Sadly on Islay the Ileachs are hopeless at reporting pot holes and street lights not working preferring to leave it for some other mug to do it.
As a result I now report pot holes that concern me, but I no longer report street lights that are not working since our two dogs were put to sleep and we have no street lighting where our house is on Islay.

[Returnofrros]

Interesting concept. Would you expect the services to be provided by the councils as at present, or by private contractors?

Council will have their price and if private contractors can undercut then fine.

But you have to have council or private you can't opt out for bins.

[islaydarkblue]

Brilliant reply. Islay. You should be running things!

Thank you.
It gets worse.
In May 2015 I received a ‘tip off’ that 69 properties on Islay which were registered for the SBBRS were not paying for the uplift of their business waste.
When a property owner registered for the SBBRS the dozy Argyll and Bute Council staff did not have the common sense to state that new business owner paid for the cost of the uplift of their business waste for the next 12 months in advance.
There was an Argyll and Bute Council Planning Committee meeting in Bruichladdich Hall on 29th June 2015 where the planning committee councillors were deciding whether to grant Bruichladdich Distillery permission to build 20 new warehouses or not.
The meeting was attended by several Argyll and Bute Council bosses including Charles Repekke who was the Director in charge of Law and Governance at Argyll and Bute Council.
After the end of the meeting I spoke to Charles Repekke and told him about the 69 properties on Islay which were registered for the SBBRS but were not paying for the uplift of their business waste.
Charles Repekke’s reply was unbelievable even by Argyll and Bute Council standards.
He replied “Give the name and addresses of the 69 properties and I will investigate it.
I replied “ That is not how it works. It is up to the Argyll and Bute Council staff to cross index every property on Islay which has registered for the SBBRS and ensure that they are paying for the uplift of their business waste. It is not Islay residents job to Argyll and Bute Council staff’s dirty work for them”!
That was the last I ever heard about it.
When the house next door to us was registered for the SBBRS I laboured the point to the owner about registering to pay Argyll and Bute Council for the uplift of their business waste which they did as they have a different coloured wheelie bin for their business waste.