Chris Maclean: Rates of decay

I've just received this year's non-domestic rate demand for 2008/9. They are charging me £8,200.50. That is a staggering amount of money. There are several pieces of paper in the envelope with the demand telling me what staggeringly good value this payment represents. How the local, district and regional councils are lean, hungry, efficient operations and that my money is well spent.

I beg to differ.

The chief executive of our local council has been on leave on full pay for over a year and no one in the council has ever given a satisfactory explanation why this is so. He's not been in the post long but we continue to pay him a six figure salary while the courts thrash it out.

The leader of our county council is the highest paid council chief executive in the country and earns more than the Prime Minister. At least I know the name of the Prime Minister.

So what do I get for this price? I get education for my children but I cannot get a grant for my daughter to attend university. I get a police service who hide in their cars while I am subjected to bouts of petty vandalism. I get a fire service even though I am fully insured. I get the support of EHOs who get distracted by trivial details and often overlook the serious issues. I get licensing officers who draw a fine salary but rarely know what they are talking about. I get social services who intervene in family issues while I as a licensee dispense help and support for many needy people free of charge. I get a parking services team whose raison d'etre is to find opportunities to punish motorists. I have a road working department whose main achievement it to dig up all the town's roads simultaneously to attain permanent gridlock.

I get a library with poor books, a museum full of rubbish, a gallery full of bad paintings and a council help desk which is as far from helpful as is possible.

I don't get my bins emptied, support when I need it, flexibility in interpreting rules, vision or ambition.

I think what I get is poor, delivered by a team who are generally inefficient and parasitic. It is difficult to conceive of an organisation whose intentions are so clearly to our benefit and yet whose achievements are much more likely to impede, damage or destroy our livelihoods. And I don't think it is going to change.

I guess I will pay up although it galls me to do so.

But it just doesn't seem right.