council competing against us! disgusting!

[volvo]

Does this just go for arb equipment or can we borrow stuff like bin wagons too?

 

I have loads of crap at the yard I could do with getting rid of.

 

Also a cherry picker would come in handy to paint the outside of the house and clean the gutters.

 

You will just have to go to the hire company and pay them the going rate like the council have to do.

[easy-lift guy]

As ever,

Precisely the factual and logical argument to put an end to this.

No public sector body should compete with private sector companies for private work.... unless the local authority is going make things fair and pay for private companies rent, rates etc of course.....

Public sector workers are there SOLELY for the purpose of working without further charge for us all. End of.

 

I have seen this scenario appear in construction recently, planning departments now will not visit your property to give advice on a planning application, you have to fill out what essentially amounts to a full planning application and pay a fee, just to find out if you need to make a planning application. I'm sorry, but they are paid for this service already, that is what they are employed to do by the taxpayer already, I fail to see how it can even be legal for a public office to charge the public again individually to carry out nothing more than the job they are employed to do.

 

If the public sector want to charge the public for their services, or compete for private work, then we should not be paying the level of council tax we do and / or ALL council services need to be opened up to the private sector, including things like the ability to grant planning permission. It seems that the public sector want it all ways. Rather than accepting [granted, understandably] that local authorities are grossly overstaffed and a massive financial burden which needs to be streamlined, they cling onto these massive structures they have created by finding new ways to take money off us to perpetuate their existence.

 

And all the while, they continue to waste money... I got a letter the other day telling me the council had conducted height surveys in all the schools in Worcestershire and purchased booster seats for children who need to use them in cars to use on school buses, my 5 year old included. The letter ended saying that it's not a legal requirement but they thought it was a good idea. I wrote a very strong letter back requested statistics showing how many children died on school buses in the last 5 years and how many deaths or injuries would have been prevented through the use of booster seats.

I may be wrong but my guess is zero on both counts.

 

I really do despair. I believe that local government & the wider public spending model we have represents the greatest hurdle to regaining economic vibility in this country [look what it's done to Greece] and the sad thing is there seems to be nothing ANYONE can do about it. Central government tell them to save money and cut their budgets? They just start charging for things. It's not what they're there for and someone needs to be a bit firmer with them and remind them of this in my humble opinion.

 

I'm so exhausted now I just fell off my soapboax...

 

I have read over this entire thread and was expecting a joke somewhere to appear, sadly I have not:sneaky2: IMO using tax payer funded employees with operating cost and overhead completely subsidized by the tax payers to compete against private industry for the sake of having work for said employees is INSANE. I am not aware of such a situation here State side and I believe the locals would have none of it. We pay more than enough in taxes for services rendered by our local, City, County, State, or Federal government's. It is not possible for private industry to compete with or against public industry since the cards are completely stacked against private industry for the reasons all ready stated. At least over here it is vary hard to get public industry to do much of anything pro active in regards to maintenance without letting them know, and when they do try and pretend to be professional like some folks in the private industry, the results are usually bad or worse. . I believe public industry should stick with serving the needs of the public and leave the private sector alone to do their jobs as well. Unless there is a even playing field which i believe does not exist based on the replies to this thread it is a lose lose for all concerned, esp. the tax payers, Big time!!!!

easy-lift guy

[skyhuck]

Well today I have had my first confirmed job lost to the council.

 

I had a job booked in, the council came to fell some street trees next to the customers house and did his job for less than I could.

[Graham S]

£500 cash earned , no tax paid , no stamp and now off to the club to flitter it all on betting and drinking , Cmon Wales ........or i might just go fishing .

[MATTMOSS]

Well today I have had my first confirmed job lost to the council.

 

I had a job booked in, the council came to fell some street trees next to the customers house and did his job for less than I could.

 

I had not heard of this happening until this thread, its not happening near me yet? It will be interesting to see how long it takes if this is what its come to.

[MATTMOSS]

£500 cash earned , no tax paid , no stamp and now off to the club to flitter it all on betting and drinking , Cmon Wales ........or i might just go fishing .

 

The Inland revenue might want a word with you some time soon.

[easy-lift guy]

Well today I have had my first confirmed job lost to the council.

 

I had a job booked in, the council came to fell some street trees next to the customers house and did his job for less than I could.

 

As long as public industry continues to be allowed to undercut private industry for work the complete death of Capitalism and Free enterprise is not far away.

We can not have it both ways folks and if the private industry thinks that is the way it is because it has been, you may want to pack it in now and work for the public sector. Otherwise work against this pox, your very way of live may depend upon it. don't give up.

easy-lift guy

[geoff]

I work for the council and i am off into work this morning to borrow the van and chipper to do private jobs as you call it and make about £500 on top of my £21k plus £6k ( stand by ) plus £10k overtime all for leaning on a shovel as some of you put it , 20 years plus experience and passionate about trees and horticulture but has no idea about jack as some of you say , Carwyn Jones made a statement that if we dont find work we wont have any so basically get out there and fight for it , i will be fighting tooth and nail , good luck .

 

Originally Posted by Graham S

£500 cash earned , no tax paid , no stamp and now off to the club to flitter it all on betting and drinking , Cmon Wales ........or i might just go fishing

 

If this is not a wind up,then I can quite understand why the private sector workers think it unfair competition.

 

But on the face of it this is not the local authority competing,this is moonlighting with LA kit surely

 

Do the LA have a policy to aid & abet this,& is this what Carwyn Jones made his statement about....hmm:001_smile:

 

I'm sure this is tongue in cheek humour though.

Edited February 25, 2012 by geoff

[Paul Barton]

£500 cash earned , no tax paid , no stamp and now off to the club to flitter it all on betting and drinking , Cmon Wales ........or i might just go fishing .

 

Ah, so you are a wind-up merchant! Very funny pal.

[geoff]

Well today I have had my first confirmed job lost to the council.

 

I had a job booked in, the council came to fell some street trees next to the customers house and did his job for less than I could.

 

If the job was booked in,surely there is a breech of contract,& wonder the implications if the LA were made aware of this whilst tendering.

 

Probably did you a favour Huck,clients like that.