Douglas Borough Council

[On The Bus]

It's not the Government's place to be entrepreneurial. That's for the private sector.

Government need to stick to providing the basics at the best possible value/cost to residents. That's all they need to do.

[Non-Believer]

3 hours ago, Roger Mexico said:

A lot of those are joint boards, often with no actual employees and minimal administration charges.  They have to exist because they jointly control assets, so there has to be some legal body, but there's no real saving in abolishing them because they would just become a sub-committee of a larger body.

But the whole point of amalgamating these functions into one big government department was efficiency savings.  Surely you're not telling us it doesn't work?

No, I'd keep the local teams on the ground but centralise the administration and get rid of the local admin tiers.

[On The Bus]

4 minutes ago, Non-Believer said:

No, I'd keep the local teams on the ground but centralise the administration and get rid of the local admin tiers.

Spot on.  The people actually doing the work - emptying the bins, sweeping the streets - they're an asset. It's the office dwellers that need getting rid of. Too many little empires. 

[Donald Trumps]

1 hour ago, On The Bus said:

It's not the Government's place to be entrepreneurial. That's for the private sector.

Government need to stick to providing the basics at the best possible value/cost to residents. That's all they need to do.

Well you get them to do it then

[asitis]

Business landlords urged to be more understanding over rent issues

 

Headline from IOM Today, so the private sector landlords have to be understanding whilst DBC don't !

Hypocritical in the extreme eh Mr Christian !!

[Donald Trumps]

I see he's now blaming government, they're making DBC charge business rates

He doesn't want to do it but he has no alternate course of action available to him

We're forced to conclude that DBC is unable to vary the business rate

Is there any point in them being there at all?

[Roger Mexico]

1 hour ago, Donald Trumps said:

I see he's now blaming government, they're making DBC charge business rates

He doesn't want to do it but he has no alternate course of action available to him

We're forced to conclude that DBC is unable to vary the business rate

Is there any point in them being there at all?

This is just Christian blubbering that a big boy did it and he ran away.  We saw exactly the same thing with closing the Cemetery - he claimed it was because of the government regulations.  The fact that the regulations he referred to don't mention cemeteries, hasn't stopped him repeating this.  Similarly even if DBC doesn't have the power to make rate concessions (I suspect it has) it could have requested for them to be included in emergency legislation.  But the gravy train must keep rolling and if a pandemic provides the excuse to provide even fewer services for the same money, all the better.

[John Wright]

Actually you’re wrong about cemeteries. Churchyards are closed. It’s eusdem generis 

rates, whether domestic or business are imposed by central government, the rateable values are set by central government. 

The local authorities just set the rate in the £ and collect their rates, domestic or business. Most authorities delegate collection to Treasury anyway. Plus Treasury collect water and sewerage. 

As a 12 year chair of the Rent & Rate Appeal Commissioners I don’t think they have the right to remit/cancel. That would be central government.

[Roger Mexico]

30 minutes ago, John Wright said:

Actually you’re wrong about cemeteries. Churchyards are closed. It’s eusdem generis 

rates, whether domestic or business are imposed by central government, the rateable values are set by central government. 

The local authorities just set the rate in the £ and collect their rates, domestic or business. Most authorities delegate collection to Treasury anyway. Plus Treasury collect water and sewerage. 

As a 12 year chair of the Rent & Rate Appeal Commissioners I don’t think they have the right to remit/cancel. That would be central government.

The actual regulations don't seem to mention graveyards either.  The only explicit ban is for the Crem, except for funerals, but that's an enclosed space.  Of course the appropriate authorities have the right to close them if they want, it's just that I get fed up with them trying to offload the responsibility elsewhere.

Similarly if they don'y have the power to make concessions (I deliberately worded that vaguely) they should either talk to the government to get them temporarily or tell those asking for help that they aren't interested.

[John Wright]

37 minutes ago, Roger Mexico said:

The actual regulations don't seem to mention graveyards either.  The only explicit ban is for the Crem, except for funerals, but that's an enclosed space.  Of course the appropriate authorities have the right to close them if they want, it's just that I get fed up with them trying to offload the responsibility elsewhere.

Similarly if they don'y have the power to make concessions (I deliberately worded that vaguely) they should either talk to the government to get them temporarily or tell those asking for help that they aren't interested.

You need to look at page 7 of 13 again Places of worship ( which includes attached churchyards/graveyard ) and the chapel opposite the grandstand is consecrated ( a place of worship ) and crematoria ( which would include any adjoined graveyard or garden of remembrance )  are only allowed to open for restricted purposes in columns 2 and 3. The permitted purposes don’t include walking through or going to pay respects. May be a problem in Onchan as there is a right of way runs through.

Its up to businesses to contact Treasury, not the Corpy, surely.

[TheTeapot]

There's a right of way through St Lupus too, but that's shut. Although they cut the grass there Tuesday.

[Max Power]

14 minutes ago, John Wright said:

You need to look at page 7 of 13 again Places of worship ( which includes attached churchyards/graveyard ) and the chapel opposite the grandstand is consecrated ( a place of worship ) and crematoria ( which would include any adjoined graveyard or garden of remembrance )  are only allowed to open for restricted purposes in columns 2 and 3. The permitted purposes don’t include walking through or going to pay respects. May be a problem in Onchan as there is a right of way runs through.

Its up to businesses to contact Treasury, not the Corpy, surely.

I can't see any legitimate reason though John. Places of worship are enclosed and I can understand that entirely. It just seems that nobody wants to take this up and challenge the decision to get a satisfactory answer. Government are backing away from getting involved over what most people see as a misinterpretation of the rules, for fear of upsetting DTC. It seems the churches have followed their lead rather than be held accountable?  

[english zloty]

On 4/9/2020 at 2:27 PM, Donald Trumps said:

Don't most rural authorities hire contractors as needed rather than employ local teams?

Yes and they mainly use the same folk, as 'they're lovely' rather than provide value for money. If Phil Gawne can make it look like he's making improvements, then that demonstrates how utterly shambolic it is. 

Returning to DBC, it has layers of management whose primary role is to, in behalf of Council, battle with Central Government. And battles they can rarely win because no local authority is empowered to make serious decisions and that's because when they do, they completely fuck it up. 

There are clearly commissioners here, and so there will be an apposite view, but one only has to look and the legislation imposed as a result of these fuck ups to see it's true.

DBC still think they're serving a tourist and central business district of the 70s and unfortunately, they are not.

Very much agree with the concept of regionalism at the coal face, however commissioners nah, they're out of touch and unnecessary.

[hissingsid]

There is no need to close cemeteries.   The only time you see a group of people in them is after a funeral.   This is completely over the top and unnecessary as funerals are by law only attended by the immediate family.   At this stressful time some people will get solace from visiting a relative’s grave.   Also, as long as the materials can be safely delivered I see no harm in doing a bit of work on the house or garden people need to be occupied it could be a golden opportunity to smarten the house or garden up and help keep the businesses concerned going.  Far better to give local shops, who are not open, but still trying to do a bit than ordering from Amazon.

[Neil Down]

2 hours ago, english zloty said:

Yes and they mainly use the same folk, as 'they're lovely' rather than provide value for money. If Phil Gawne can make it look like he's making improvements, then that demonstrates how utterly shambolic it is. 

Returning to DBC, it has layers of management whose primary role is to, in behalf of Council, battle with Central Government. And battles they can rarely win because no local authority is empowered to make serious decisions and that's because when they do, they completely fuck it up. 

There are clearly commissioners here, and so there will be an apposite view, but one only has to look and the legislation imposed as a result of these fuck ups to see it's true.

DBC still think they're serving a tourist and central business district of the 70s and unfortunately, they are not.

Very much agree with the concept of regionalism at the coal face, however commissioners nah, they're out of touch and unnecessary.

Between them and government they’ve cornered the fuck-uppery market...