In general, I’m all for council tax.
I agree with the broad principle of it; you live in a place, you contribute a little money to its upkeep.
In return, you don’t have to worry about things like street lighting or bin collections.
Your streets are kept clean, and your services are ample and efficient.
Unless you live in Dundee.
Outside my front door right now is a street chronically strewn with rubbish.
The last storm blew open the lids of the massive communal bins.
Between the wind and the seagulls, it’s a mess. It always was, but now it’s worse.
Not to worry – last year, the road markings reminding residents not to park in certain spots were refreshed.
But you can’t really tell, because the road remains lined with an unbroken trail of drinks cans, food wrappers, used nappies, condoms and plastic bags.
The street lights do work, I have to say. All the better to see the the dog poo, dropped chewing gum and broken glass with.
In times gone by, I’d have been worried about describing my own street in detail on this page.
But the truth is that if you walk down any street in Dundee city centre or its surrounding neighbourhoods, it’s the same story.
So I’ll happily take Dundee City Council’s 8% council tax increase if it means a cleaner city. But I want to actually see the results.
In fact, since I’m a grade-A nerd, I took the liberty of working out if the council tax hike from my street alone would be enough to pay for its cleaning.
Would 8% more tax clean up my street?
We’re a Band A bunch over here, meaning the annual council tax charge out of one of these Dundee homes is £990.95.
Taking 8% of that, you’re looking at an extra £79 from each home, each year.
There are roughly 40 addresses in this street, so that’s an extra £3,160 a year JUST from the increase.
Figures from Glasgow hit the news when it was reported some areas had a street cleaning cost of £25 per head, the place was such a tip.
So let’s say that in each of those 40 addresses, there’s an average of 2 people – these are smaller properties, after all.
Even at the exorbitant cost of £25 per head, this one street’s bill would work out at £2,000.
That leaves us a grand left over – again, just from that extra 8%.
Not to mention all the council tax we’re already paying.
This is just one little street, in one little neighbourhood of a whole city.
But from that cursory calculation, what I’m seeing is this: that extra 8% should have my street sparkling.
And yours.
What else are Dundee City Council doing?
Credit where it’s due – according to the latest budget plan, an additional £300K has been allocated to add seasonal environmental staff and support ongoing community clear-up works.
Grand, let’s put that in the pot too, and maybe we can clean the whole place 2 or 3 times a year.
It would be prudent, given that DCC are scrapping money to their small skip service, increasing the likelihood of fly-tipping.
At least the city marketing budget is being dispensed with for the moment.
Before we invite guests round, Dundee best get the house in order.
Speaking of which, did you hear the council are leasing out some of the floor space at Dundee House?
Makes me think back to all the debates about the waterfront offices, when some Courier columnist was banging on about how vacant spaces in the city centre could be used instead of ploughing council money into building new ones.
But far be it for me to criticise a sensible move.
The saving grace of these budget proposals is Broughty Castle.
DCC have thrown it £50K to keep it open on reduced hours.
I just hope that’s not a palliative £50K to soften the blow when the outcry has quietened.
For 8% more council tax, Dundee residents deserve shining streets and a castle too.
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