City HMOs should be charged business rate

IN THE next few weeks we’ll be asked to vote in the local elections, and I’m wondering if it’s worth while walking the 50 yards to cast my vote.

I’ve voted in every govern- ment and local election since the late 1960s, but I am so disillusioned with the present bunch.

Our hope when voting is that those elected will carry out our wishes, but the present lot have, it seems, an agenda that doesn’t include the majority of the electorate’s wishes.

We have councillors telling us that we are well past saturation point when it comes to houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs) in Cathays and Roath [Cardiff]. Then the planning officers ignore this and allow the speculators to do what they feel like.

Recently, we were informed by the planning office that someone intended to make alterations to an HMO nearby. The problem was this was not an HMO as claimed by the owner, besides that, all that was left standing of this house was the front wall and roof.

As work had started weeks before the planning office informed us of the owner’s intention, this letter also gave us about six weeks to raise any objection. The planning office was informed this was not an HMO, so a few weeks later we had another letter from the planning officer telling us the owner was applying for permission to turn this house into an HMO.

Most of the destruction and reconstruction had already taken place by then, even though there were still weeks left to raise objections.

Local councillors have told us many times that the unsightly lowering of ceilings to below window line, to gain headroom in the attic, was not allowed. A practice that carries on unabated, it seems, as at the house referred to here.

It is pretty obvious the owner was confident he was going to get permission from the planning officer. HMOs need to be seen for what they are – small businesses – and charged a business rate. After all, they are used to make money, not for the benefit of the community.

People including myself have asked who pays for the loss of rates on what were family homes, but cannot get an answer, leading us to believe the ratepayers of this city are having to make up the millions of pounds in lost rates.

Francis Spragg

Cathays,

Cardiff

French voters need to think carefully – peace is at stake

I HAD a dream in which I was travelling through Taff Ely on a bus that was like a time machine.

It circled Efail Isaf and Treforest. When I visited my house in the former it was the future. There were no BMW cars outside, they were all made by Microsoft! When I went inside I naturally asked my brother and father about the war, to which they referred to the Third World War. They said that France had used its veto and the UN had folded as a result.

When I got back on the bus destined for the latter, papers resembling my university and business work fell everywhere and someone who once voted for me helped me pick them up.

I think this dream means I’ve got too many of my own problems to fix the world’s, but the people of France should think carefully who they vote for as that person will have a vote on the UN Security Council and therefore a big say on the Russia-Ukraine conflict and how far it is allowed to escalate.

Equally, we should be asking as a country that is on the Security Council whether political opportunism over “Partygate” is more important than keeping the Prime Minister the country intended to vote for.

Jonathan Bishop

Efail Isaf,

Taf Ely

Election will be the ultimate verdict on Prime Minister

IT HAS been suggested that Boris Johnson should follow England cricketer and Test captain Joe Root’s example and step down as leader (Root citing the “toll” and “impact” the role of captain has had on him). Although a hugely talented cricketer, under Root’s leadership England have won just one of their past 17 Tests, their worst run since the 1980s.

Hang, on though. Using the cricket analogy, Boris won two Mayor of London Tests (the equivalent of winning a brace of Ashes series in Australia), Brexit – oh, and the 2019 election by a clear innings. The Covid, Ukraine and Cost of Living Tests are still undecided...

Regarding the ongoing and increasingly weary Partygate farce, I was intrigued that the PM acknowledges that he unknowingly broke the rules, rather than knowingly. Indeed, I like the speeding ticket comparison.

An educated guess suggests that probably just 10% deliberately break a speed limit, whereas the rest of us are simply not paying attention to the road ahead because we are side-tracked by a conversation in the car, or on a mobile, or listening to the radio, or daydreaming...

I tend to agree that the Downing

Street party fiasco season was inadvertent.

However, my previous thoughts remain: it is unforgivable that nothing in Boris’ clever brain warned him of the inevitable ambush of holding any sort of parties at Downing Street during lockdown, and that it would end in chaos and divert attention from other problems, challenges that should ultimately decide his fate at the next general election.

Huw Beynon

Llandeilo

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HMOs need to be seen for what they are – small businesses

Francis Spragg Cathays