Call a halt to waste of public money

SO Nottingham City Council is now officially the worst-performing local authority in the country!

To be exact it has been reported in the national media that Nottingham now has the highest council tax in the whole country – but many people will say it is effectively the same thing. According to The Guardian the D band rate for Nottingham is now £2226.

In the better-run Derby City Council the D band is £1868 and D band can be as low as £1049 in some authorities down south. Indeed in some authorities the council tax for the most expensive million pound properties (H band) is slightly less than Nottingham folk pay for medium sized houses.

The council leader David Mellen once again bleats on and on that the high rate is caused by a government shortfall towards local authorities. Yet I do not hear other authorities making the same comments.

As well as having the highest council tax no other authority imposes the very unfair Work Place parking tax that causes so many problems and is a big deterrent to businesses relocating to Nottingham.

I am sure that a significant factor is the very poor transparency seen every day in Nottingham resulting in the multi-million pounds lost in the Robin Hood Energy disaster and the eyewatering losses over the Broadmarsh Centre.

Yes, I am sure that like most organisations the council has lost a lot of income and incurred extra expenses due to Covid problems this past year.

So it really is incredibly foolish of the council to plough on with yet more and more unwanted parking restrictions and to close roads down like Canal Street and the Embankment.

Rather than raising council tax higher and higher they should “cut one’s coat according to one’s cloth”.

And any sensible leader would order an immediate freeze on all unnecessary expenditure until the city council can get their act together – which looks unlikely to happen before the 2023 local elections.

Tina Archer

Nottingham