Guest 714- Registered: 14 Apr 2011
- Posts: 2,594
Several times on here I've questioned the purpose of DDC - is their primary purpose to regenerate or simply to keep the streets clean and well lit?
Interestingly another thread highlights all the streets with weeds and other plants, I recently was involved in an exchange where a local councillor asked if it was the Town Team's responsibility to clear the rubbish in the Market Square.
So, they don't regenerate, the town is filthy and overgrown, I'm driven to ask - what are the highly paid senior officers at DDC doing to justify themselves? There are plenty of hardworking, low paid staff at DDC being let down by inept councillors and senior staff. That's not to mention the good people of Dover who's patience is running thin.
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,894
I often wonder where the money raised by the council tax goes in comparison with as an example 50yrs ago when our streets were regularly swept by a man with a broom and there were plenty of open public toilets.
I do not remember weeds because the gutters and pavements were clear and the toilets were always clean because an attendent was looking after them.
Do councils now get less to spend in relative terms per head or about the same? Is it as I suspect possible they are less efficient in the way our taxes are spent because they are top heavy with management in the offices.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
street lights are kcc not ddc.
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Sorry Jan not so,The DDC have had millionsof pounds taken back from them in ways of cutbacks, but also it is the highway dept that needs to be told about this roads etc come under them.
Guest 977- Registered: 27 Jun 2013
- Posts: 1,031
There's currently a consultation on the DDC website about how we would like their budget to be spent - someone must have been reading David's posts.
I tried doing it myself but got to the second stage and gave up, decided the way it was set up it was more a PR exercise than a consultation, others might disagree (apologies for sounding like Keith
).
http://www.dover.gov.uk/Budget-2013.aspxGuest 714- Registered: 14 Apr 2011
- Posts: 2,594
Thanks for the link Ray.
How much money and time wasted on putting forward that survey?
If its any consolation you got further than me.
Guest 744- Registered: 20 Mar 2012
- Posts: 412
I think they blow it on expensive holidays in exotic places - can't think what else the money goes on.
Paul Watkins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 9 Nov 2011
- Posts: 2,226
Footpath & footways are the responsibility of KCC not DDC.
I would suggest you try Kent Highways for action on weeds or try your KCC cllrs for Dover, Gordon Cowan & Pam Brivio.
This is for information not , not politics.
Watty
Guest 714- Registered: 14 Apr 2011
- Posts: 2,594
OK so footpaths and footways are nothing to do with DDC, Veolia collect the rubbish which begs the question:
What does DDC actually do?
Guest 878- Registered: 8 Feb 2013
- Posts: 34
social housing, planning, parking, tourism and now via contractors a whole load of other stuff
jamierose
Guest 714- Registered: 14 Apr 2011
- Posts: 2,594
Tourism? Pull the other one, there's an old building on top of the cliffs that was there long before DDC.
Planning?
They're alright at planning, its doing they're rubbish at.
Parking?
They issue tickets and collect money, hardly rocket science.
Social housing?
Has much been built in the last ten years.........
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
Councils are full of graduates, all with the endemic belief that they deserve
3 , 4 or 5 times the average wage, plus benefits and utopian pension pots
This lot create top jobs for there fellow plunderers like rabbits breed
They tell me in Spain you get your, bins, fire service , and the cops for £100 a year
Guest 698- Registered: 28 May 2010
- Posts: 8,664
Councils and the civil service are full of very clever people doing very stupid things.
I'm an optimist. But I'm an optimist who takes my raincoat - Harold Wilson
Jan Higgins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,894
They are that not clever then are they, more like well educated people with no commonsense doing stupid things with our money.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Guest 649- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 14,118
Well I am no supporter of this D.D.C, nor was I when the reds were in power would they be better next time they get it,?,no they would not be .I do think some for you are unfair and even wrong in what you are posting .(1) Pos t seven Mrs Barber to say that members of the D,D,C,and their officers might be taking expensive holidays is very wrong every pound the D.D.C spend has to wrote down and each year the totel amount is looked at by a AUDIT done by a outside company so what you say could not happen even if they wanted to but I do not think they are disloyal to the public that way.Some not all of their officers now have more then one dept to run in other words they can not give the time now like they used to each dept. My pet hate is their planning office and the way they run it. And there are round pegs in s/holes.And they have had some very big cut backs+ the council tax is cap. So the service you are geting is not so good as ten years ago and it will not get better till(1)They take the cap of the council tax meaning we pay more,(2)Or the KCC give out more funding and that will not happen because they to have had big cut backs that is why our roads and highways are looking like they do.So unless any of you think you could do the job better just take a step backwards and think it out. before doing posts like some of the above ones.If you think you can do a better job great at the next election tell about it and you get voted in.I like some other cllrs who keep geting hit on the head with a big hammer from the public when trying to do ones best gets very upseting and boring .One can only do their best if it turns out wrong like it has done for myself then so be it and pack it in just like I have. You keep saying our money but it is their money to cllrs and officers pay taxs etc just like the rest of us.Last word is you can only work with the tools you have.
Guest 756- Registered: 6 Jun 2012
- Posts: 727
Go to the DDC web site and look at the A to Z of council services, thats what they do.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
wherever you live you never hear anyone happy about their local council, much the same as you rarely hear someone say "wow what a wonderful m.p. we have".
Guest 756- Registered: 6 Jun 2012
- Posts: 727
Agreed Howard but I hate it when an organization is discredited 'en bloc' because they have had problems in one particular area. It is very hurtful to read negative comments when you have just completed a days work struggling with a variety of issues, often encountering red tape which stops you getting a positive solution. I'm sure that if you were to survey council officers they would be equally,if not more so, as frustrated as the man on the street!
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
spot on lesley every organisation is made up of a mixture of achievers and time servers and sometimes we tend to smear too easily.
i have to say that i have had mostly positive experiences in my dealings with ddc although we fell out big time when i had the giant bins blocking my doorway for months on end. i put that down to the severe teething problems when the new refuse/recycling service was introduced.
in recent times i e mail them with photos of fly tipping that i see and action is always taken within 24/48 hours sometimes the same day.