The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[phantasmagoriana]

I'm surprised by how cheap Council Tax is in London! Ours is £2284 for a flat in Glasgow...

[ian]

We still get paper bills in Surrey. It's like living in another decade.

I think we may be E (though I think it should probably be an F as they added a large extension at some point which probably isn't factored in) for a four-bed detached in the jungle. Not sure if they charge extra for keeping bears and yeti in the garden.

They do empty the bins quite reliably (but only every two weeks) and now they turn out all the streetlights at midnight so we can pretend civilization has ended. We leave our outside lights on till 1am, after that it's very dark and you need the torch feature of your mobile phone to avoid falling into one of the council-sponsored potholes. Apropos of nothing, Surrey county council's HQ isn't even in Surrey.

[hellymedic]

Is it in Richmond, pseudoLondon?

Brent's got spanking new LED streetlights that are supposed to save HYOOGE amounts of electricity.

They might tone them down a bit but don't switch them off.

David can no longer filter out the street lighting thobut.

[andrewc]

The parents are paying about £2200 for a largish detached in Knowsley.

[ian]

Is it in Richmond, pseudoLondon?

Brent's got spanking new LED streetlights that are supposed to save HYOOGE amounts of electricity.

They might tone them down a bit but don't switch them off.

David can no longer filter out the street lighting thobut.

Kingston. Victim of boundary changes that ceded a chunk of Surrey to Greater London. They got Croydon too, so not all good.

I'm not actually bothered by the streetlights going out (it doesn't actually save them much money, I think they quoted about £200k, which hardly made it worth it), though it's quite spooky if you get home after 1am on a cloudy night, since the darkness is absolute. On cloudless nights you can just about see the Milky Way.

[Basil]

£1814 for a Band E hovel in Ceredigion.  Of which only £41.21 goes to Llandysul Community Council, the tight bastards.
Actually, that was 18/19.  We haven't had this years bill yet.  I wonder if it will go up or down?   

[phantasmagoriana]

We still get paper bills in Surrey. It's like living in another decade.

We do as well. Maybe that's what all the money's being spent on round here. We still have old fashioned street lighting, which doesn't get switched off at night (at least the one outside my bedroom window doesn't). We do get the bins emptied weekly (they're communal - flat-dwellers can't be trusted with our own bins). We had the excitement of part of our street being resurfaced last year, but unfortunately they stopped after about 100 metres or so, so the rest is still a pothole-ridden mess.

[mattc]

I'm not actually bothered by the streetlights going out (it doesn't actually save them much money, I think they quoted about £200k, which hardly made it worth it

£200k "hardly worth it" ??   eee by gum, you lot must have it good down there.

I'll come and hold a candle at the end of your drive for that!

[ian]

£200k isn't much of the entire council's budget (about £1,700,000,000), more so when I assume there was not inconsiderable cost of implementing it.

Our bins alternate – rubbish one week, recycling the next. Seems fine. You can pay for green waste (and have added entertainment watching it get stuck on the corner because their contractor bought a lorry without rear wheel steering).

[essexian]

Not had my bill yet: its also normally a paper one, but I am expecting the bill to creep up towards £1 500 for my band C property. That's up nearly £400 in the last four years which is just about the same as my increase in salary over the same time. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind paying tax, but it would be nice if the Government pay freeze had not made me over 20% worse off in real terms over the last 9 years. 

[ian]

I also don't begrudge the tax, it's just the lack of service. It's a bit like going to a restaurant and ordering the steak and just getting the sides, but still being charged for steak. Then when you complain, the restaurant manager tells you about much money they're saving by not serving you the steak.

I think we all know that austerity was never about saving money, it was about running down services so the councils don't have to provide them. Everyone sighs about councils and government not having the resources, which is precisely what they wanted, it's set an expectation that the service will be non-existent or poor and perhaps you shouldn't even bother asking.

[fuzzy]

Is it in Richmond, pseudoLondon?

Brent's got spanking new LED streetlights that are supposed to save HYOOGE amounts of electricity.

They might tone them down a bit but don't switch them off.

David can no longer filter out the street lighting thobut.

Kingston. Victim of boundary changes that ceded a chunk of Surrey to Greater London. They got Croydon too, so not all good.

I'm not actually bothered by the streetlights going out (it doesn't actually save them much money, I think they quoted about £200k, which hardly made it worth it), though it's quite spooky if you get home after 1am on a cloudy night, since the darkness is absolute. On cloudless nights you can just about see the Milky Way.

Which is more than many urban dwellers can do.

[ian]

Well, admittedly it's a brief sighting before a bear decides you'll make a most excellent midnight snack.

[hellymedic]

Isn't Ursa Major visible on any clear night?

[Beardy]

I got my demand yesterday. £1700 for a band D in rural(ish) Suffolk.
Our street lights go out at midnight, which I like, but a late stagger home from the pub is punctuated by badly installed and fettled¹ PIR controlled lights. It destroys the night vision 

1. I mean, it’s not hard to point the damn PIR in the right direction. Having a light come on when someone walks past your property on the OTHER side of the road is just rude.

[ian]

Isn't Ursa Major visible on any clear night?

These are Ursa Surreyanalis, the famed local jungle bear.

Reminds me that someone has installed a driveway light (basically a security light) on my route home from the station that dazzles anyone approaching down the road, which is bright yet not bright.

[mcshroom]

Aren't that based on some ancient valuation of your house, probably the mid-1600s? Or perhaps the Domesday Book?

I seem to recall a tortuous appeal process in a previous place to get the band changed.

Surrey's (Tandridge anyway) most effective service is the dispatch and collection of council tax. I wouldn't knock the London boroughs, they provide a level of service that you don't get in the sticks (despite paying more). In Croydon, we had a 'street team' and everything.

Value on 1st April 1991 apparently. Funnily enough they wouldn't accept that, as my house wasn't built until 2009, it's value in 1991 was £0 so that should also be my council tax bill.

It is Band A however (for a 2 bed & 1 upstairs bike room house!). Round here that will be £1,232.15 next year (before any discount)

[fuzzy]

Insecurity lights

I am of the opinion that the light of Burglar Bills torch, or the curses as Burglar Bill stubs his toe or skins his shins against an unilluminated obstruction, as he/ she stumbles around your unilluminated back yard is more likely to attract attention than a sudddenly illuminated insecurity light.

[ian]

Despite the fears of the locals that turning off the lights would result in an apocalyptic crime wave, I'm of the opinion that burglars don't like stumbling around in pitch darkness, and yes, someone with a torch in your back garden tends to be a bit of a giveaway. Unless you live in a multi-million mansion that makes the effort of planning a robbery worthwhile, the average scrote tends to follow the path of least resistance, trying doors etc on obviously empty houses (which they mostly seem to do during daylight).

I've no idea why the street behind ours has council street lights (a few) anyway as it's a private street. Presumably to control the bear menace.

[fuzzy]

Well, you gotta be careful of those knife wielding, gun toteing muslim bears innit?

[Cudzoziemiec]

I've no idea why the street behind ours has council street lights (a few) anyway as it's a private street. Presumably to control the bear menace.

Is it a public footpath? Councils can put street footpath lights on public footpaths.

[Kim]

Insecurity lights

I am of the opinion that the light of Burglar Bills torch, or the curses as Burglar Bill stubs his toe or skins his shins against an unilluminated obstruction, as he/ she stumbles around your unilluminated back yard is more likely to attract attention than a sudddenly illuminated insecurity light.

Those clever Chinese cost-cutters have upped the game in recent years, thobut.  Since the switch to cheap shitty LED technology, the insecurity light is able to disorient or even immobilise your foe, as the current-limiting driver gets stuck in a strobe-o-vision start-overcurrent-shutdown-restart loop due to the burnt-out overdriven LEDs.

I predict a rise in vandalism.  Of security lights.

But they've though of that too: The earth wire on the cheap shitty LED security lights from China is nearly always cosmetic....

[ian]

I've no idea why the street behind ours has council street lights (a few) anyway as it's a private street. Presumably to control the bear menace.

Is it a public footpath? Councils can put street footpath lights on public footpaths.

One of the lights probably is (as a public footpath runs by the front of our house and up the hill), but further along the road, definitely not. I assume at some point Surrey felt generous. Our street also used to be private, but Surrey adopted it back in 1988 for the princely sum of £125. Not actually sure why they did, tbh, it's got two houses on it. Possibly they just like steep hills.

[Beardy]

Insecurity lights

I am of the opinion that the light of Burglar Bills torch, or the curses as Burglar Bill stubs his toe or skins his shins against an unilluminated obstruction, as he/ she stumbles around your unilluminated back yard is more likely to attract attention than a sudddenly illuminated insecurity light.

Those clever Chinese cost-cutters have upped the game in recent years, thobut.  Since the switch to cheap shitty LED technology, the insecurity light is able to disorient or even immobilise your foe, as the current-limiting driver gets stuck in a strobe-o-vision start-overcurrent-shutdown-restart loop due to the burnt-out overdriven LEDs.

I predict a rise in vandalism.  Of security lights.

But they've though of that too: The earth wire on the cheap shitty LED security lights from China is nearly always cosmetic....

You are Big Clive AICMFP

[Kim]

I learned everything I know about power electronics from Big Clive's usenet alter-ego, Davie Dimmers.