Council 'Administration' Charge

[ladypenelope]

I was spending the day with my sister yesterday in the beautiful city of -------. Anyway she said that she had to get a parking permit from the council as she has just bought her first car. The car my brother in law has already has a permit - it cost £26 per annum. Having a second car permit means she has to pay £52!!! If that's not bad enough we called into the council offices so my sister could show them the paperwork to say she is the owner of the vehicle. 

The woman at the council walked up some stairs to view said paperwork and said to my sister that her permit was in the 'mail out' tray but it was too late to be sent today.  I asked if she could bring envelope out of 'mail out tray' and give permit to my sister.  The answer was yes she could do that but there would be an 'administration' charge of £5.00 to physically hand the permit to my sister!!!!  I asked the lady why they charge £5.00 for her walking up the stairs with said permit and with a completely straight face her reply was 'they just do'.  What????

Well, to say I was incensed is putting it mildly  - I started to question the lady about the breakdown of the £5.00 administration charge and was dragged out of the council offices by sister.  We did have words (me and my sister) outside the council offices. She said it's not worth making a fuss for £5.00.  My argument is that is exactly the reason we should make a fuss - I personally think it's outrageous that councils get away with this carry on...

What are other folks views on this or am I fussing over nothing?

[Raffles]

It is absolutely frightening that we have 'jobsworth' people like that running our daily lives. I don't want to tar all civil servants, whether local or national, with the same brush, I'm sure there are some excellent people ... but the higher up the food chain in 'public service' people get, it seems to me to be in direct proportion to lack of brains and common sense. I could be harsher and mention 'meal ticket' for life.

The £5 probably goes into the 'slush' fund for 'entertaining' which is obviously very crucial in performing their duties.

Apologies to any public servants on here, I obviously don't mean you!

[ladypenelope]

Raffles I am a public servant my self but I don't work for the council!

I just think that people are entitled to know what the breakdown of the £5.00 is - not too much to ask!!

[Raffles]

May 15, 2014 14:57:21 GMT ladypenelope said:

Raffles I am a public servant my self but I don't work for the council!

I just think that people are entitled to know what the breakdown of the £5.00 is - not too much to ask!!

There probably isn't one... just some 'committee' decision to milk a few people. So much is covered by an 'administration' fee... just look at the charges banks, legal firms etc make with no justification.

[charon]

May 15, 2014 14:57:21 GMT ladypenelope said:

Raffles I am a public servant my self but I don't work for the council!

I just think that people are entitled to know what the breakdown of the £5.00 is - not too much to ask!!

Hmmmmmmmmmm, how many stairs where there?
Would she have to "sort through" the outgoing mail?
Would it be necessary for her to converse with a colleague from a different section?


my Oh my how it all adds up...........

[Bluefish]

I think it's a pound a stair lol Parking is a right con anyhow grrr

[ripple27]

May 15, 2014 14:30:01 GMT ladypenelope said:

I was spending the day with my sister yesterday in the beautiful city of -------. Anyway she said that she had to get a parking permit from the council as she has just bought her first car. The car my brother in law has already has a permit - it cost £26 per annum. Having a second car permit means she has to pay £52!!! If that's not bad enough we called into the council offices so my sister could show them the paperwork to say she is the owner of the vehicle. 

The woman at the council walked up some stairs to view said paperwork and said to my sister that her permit was in the 'mail out' tray but it was too late to be sent today.  I asked if she could bring envelope out of 'mail out tray' and give permit to my sister.  The answer was yes she could do that but there would be an 'administration' charge of £5.00 to physically hand the permit to my sister!!!!  I asked the lady why they charge £5.00 for her walking up the stairs with said permit and with a completely straight face her reply was 'they just do'.  What????

Well, to say I was incensed is putting it mildly  - I started to question the lady about the breakdown of the £5.00 administration charge and was dragged out of the council offices by sister.  We did have words (me and my sister) outside the council offices. She said it's not worth making a fuss for £5.00.  My argument is that is exactly the reason we should make a fuss - I personally think it's outrageous that councils get away with this carry on...

What are other folks views on this or am I fussing over nothing?

Sorry but i agree with you as if you had 'made a fuss' they might of backed down about the £5 charge, sometimes its a matter of challenging these people, good luck

[Deleted]

Doesn't the council tax we pay cover these charges anyway?

[ripple27]

May 18, 2014 10:19:45 GMT @munkymunky said:

Doesn't the council tax we pay cover these charges anyway?

Good Question you would of thought so but don't think it does

[mart166]

My local council asked us if we would like controled parking (eg give us money we give you permit to park), fine i said yes, then after it came in, cost which was never told before, my car huge engine, £350 a year, wifes car little engine £20 a year, dont think so, both take same amount of room in street, if your going to rip me off at least say so first

MP

[Perpetua]

May 18, 2014 10:19:45 GMT @munkymunky said:

Doesn't the council tax we pay cover these charges anyway?

Council Tax pays less and less of even the basic services it seems Munky.

Having pushed recycling until everyone is sick of it and spent an utter fortune on various bins and bags to accommodate all the different forms of waste, our LA has now levied a yearly charge if you want your Green Bin emptied.

And they seem to find it difficult to empty even the ordinary bins.

[CaptainChaos]

Friend of my mums asked the council for a complete breakdown of what the council tax is used for & went through it, then highlighted all the things that she didn't agree with or want to pay for & reduced her council tax by £20 a month & when she got the snotty council letters, she explained why she wasn't paying it.

They never challenged her after she refused to pay for the "black lesbian dwarves society" or whatever it was lol

** sorry if the above totally undiverse offends anyone, and I'll edit it to the "green mutant Walmart shopper society" if you want

[chrisjw]

May 18, 2014 21:02:38 GMT Perpetua said:

May 18, 2014 10:19:45 GMT @munkymunky said:

Doesn't the council tax we pay cover these charges anyway?

Council Tax pays less and less of even the basic services it seems Munky.

Having pushed recycling until everyone is sick of it and spent an utter fortune on various bins and bags to accommodate all the different forms of waste, our LA has now levied a yearly charge if you want your Green Bin emptied.

And they seem to find it difficult to empty even the ordinary bins.

Round my neck of the woods, every household has 3 enormous wheelie bins & 1 smaller one................On bin day, it looks like a multi-coloured plastic Dalek convention being held in the street.........none of them get even a third full in a week............maybe they should replace the public ones with them.................& while I'm ranting, how come they bang on about putting certain stuff in certain bins & threatening not to empty them if we don't conform & yet everything & it's brother (including doggie doo-doo) gets chucked in the public ones....(or in Perpetua 's case, out of the bin )..............

[mart166]

As much as it pains me to write this, despite my earlier parking comments, I cannot praise Hackney Council East London enough for their refuse service, we get more than enough green bags for our recycling, 1 bag for everything, our collections are weekly, with loads of notice on bank holidays that it'll be a day late. This from a borough that was the poorest in the UK a few years ago. Still hate their parking services though just as a balance lol.

MP

[buggritt]

Can I be the odd one out? There's no doubt we have allowed both councils and government to regard our money as their own. Apathy mostly. However, time is a commodity and has to be paid for. The £5 charge is probably to deter people from popping in and taking up that time. If it seems a bit steep, well we live in a country where politicians think it's fine to claim for cat food. I didn'r mind the moat, I'm quite taken with the audacity of that. And that's OUR fault. All councils have a surcharge on council tax, to pay for the households that will not pay at all.
We need to go back to the days when people came in to politics, local and national, after having had a job.
We have a Prime Minister who believes it's ok to cheat the public if you are good at what you do. Maria Miller and Gary Barlow being the examples. Thieves. But upper echelon thieves.