Idiot 

  Quote JR -------Rules are badly written - exactly JR which makes them unfair.

The bedroom Tax only applies to people renting who are on benefits, hence my comment about pensioners V disabled, it should be right across the board and it's not.

You two falling in love 

The footage of the raiway line in Dawlish is quite frightening and the gap which has collapsed is so near to houses, but they say the line was built on sand?
I'm surprised it's lasted as long as it has if that is the case.

I can't help feeling sorry for the people in the south.
It has seemingly been getting steadily worse over the weeks.

The Enviroment people have been blamed for not dredging the rivers.
They have blamed the government cuts.

Not sure what positive action the government have taken apart from maybe send in the forces, they seem to have moved very slowly on this.

Meanwhile Prince Charles visited and donated fifty thousand from his trust - embarrassing for the government 

The seas I have watched on TV I have only ever seen out in the ocean with no land in sight.

Is this the seas claiming more of our land, or is something more going on under the sea in our earths crust?

1.99% council tax rise approved
6 February 2014

We have agreed to increase our share of council tax by 1.99% to help deal with a £157m shortfall in our budget by 2018.


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Reductions in Government grants, inflation and greater demands on areas of the budget for adult social care and vulnerable children mean we are facing unprecedented budget pressures.

In 2014-15, we must save £36.7m and at a meeting yesterday (Wednesday 5 February) councillors voted to:

Set our annual budget for 2014-15 at £515.5 million
generate £5 million by asking residents to pay an extra 1.99% in council tax.
It follows a public consultation carried out across Derbyshire last year asking residents whether they would prefer the county council to freeze council tax at the current rate or raise it between 1% up to 5%.

Of the 2,814 responses, 58% said they would support an increase of 2% or more.

The 1.99% rise will mean an increase of £21.49 a year − or 41p a week − for a Band D property and £16.71 a year − or 32p a week − for a Band B property. Most homes in Derbyshire are Band A or B.

1.99% council tax rise approved

Dig a bit deeper in those pockets folks



Increasing council tax is the last thing we want to do. We know residents are struggling to make ends meet and we've done our best to keep council tax just below the rate of inflation.

"Freezing council tax this year would only make next year more painful because we've got to make cuts every year for the next five years.

"We're putting our own house in order to make savings by scrutinising spending, reviewing senior management and selling off redundant land and buildings, but it's not enough to meet the £157m shortfall arising from Government cuts."

I have highlited in bold below the part of this which interested me
Is this a new idea or has it been around in other councild for awhile?





Our councillors and councillors at Derby City Council are set to consider plans to press ahead with a state-of-the-art waste treatment facility in Sinfin.




Planning permission has already been granted for the facility to be built on Sinfin Lane, Derby.

And if the plans get the go-ahead, each year it would handle around 190,000 tonnes of household waste that isn't recycled or composted from Derby and Derbyshire.

This waste is currently sent to landfill sites or treated outside Derbyshire which is not environmentally or financially sustainable for the future.

Inside the facility, waste would be heat-treated to produce a gas which is then burned to create enough electricity to power 14,000 homes. Any leftover ash would be recycled to produce an aggregate replacement in concrete block manufacture or treated and used as a gypsum substitute.This process would save 48,000 tonnes of carbon a year compared to sending waste to landfill − the equivalent of taking 16,000 cars off the road.

It would also help the councils achieve a recycling rate of 55% by 2020 − exceeding the national target of 50%.

Costs have been reviewed to make sure the facility, which is expected to cost around £140 million, is still affordable and costs less than sending non-recyclable waste to landfill.

It is expected to save the councils £2.5 million a year for 27 years, providing certainty about the cost of managing waste in the longer term. This will help the councils manage their budgets and protect them from future rises in the cost of landfill − including Landfill Tax which will increase to £80 a tonne on 1 April 2014.

Councillor Joan Dixon, our Cabinet Member for Jobs, Economy and Transport, said:

"The county council needs to cut its budget by £157m by 2018 and our current landfill bill is one we cannot afford in the future.

Full report in the link below.
http://www.derbyshire.gov.uk/council/news_events/news-updates/2014/february/were_considering_way_forward_for_waste.asp