Council taxbases for 2014-15
The council is required by law to confirm how many properties in the borough are liable to pay council tax and at what level, based on how they are occupied. On 16th December, Cabinet approved a range of recommendations including:
· To retain the council tax discount for second homes at 0%
· To retain the council tax discount for long-term empty properties at 0% and apply a 50% charge on properties that have been empty longer than two years
· To leave the Council Tax Support Scheme unchanged.
Audit Commission Annual Report – Auditing the Accounts 2012/13
Slough Borough Council (SBC) is failing residents in its poor management of taxpayers’ money. The Audit Commission has just released its annual report, naming SBC amongst just four councils in England and Wales that shamefully failed to submit audited accounts by the national deadline of 30 September 2013.
Audited accounts are the main way public bodies show accountability for managing public money. Marcine Waterman, The Controller of the Audit Commission, says that public bodies that fail to publish audited accounts by the deadline show a “lack of public transparency”; and she adds, “I hope the bodies that delayed publishing their audited accounts this year appreciate the importance of putting this information into the public domain as early as possible."
Closure of Heathrow – Potential impacts on Slough and surrounding areas
Up to 70,000 jobs across three boroughs neighbouring Heathrow would vanish, with devastating economic consequences, if the airport were to close in favour of a new hub airport elsewhere.
That is the dire warning from a new piece of research commissioned by the London Boroughs of Hounslow, Ealing and Slough Borough Council, which concluded that other recent studies, including one by Heathrow Airport Limited itself, have underestimated the employment impacts of a scenario in which Heathrow closes.
The three local authorities, all of whom have differing positions on the future of Heathrow, were concerned that the local impact of any decision were not being given sufficient weight in the deliberations into how to increase airport capacity in the South East.
The independent research, carried out by Parsons Brinkerhof and Berkeley Hanover Consulting, offers a comprehensive analysis of the impact on the economies in the three boroughs of the most likely longer-term options for future airport capacity in London and the South East in the period to 2030.
It sets out six possible scenarios for the airport, based on likely options the Davies Commission will consider in its imminent initial report.
The final scenario, the closure of Heathrow in favour of a new hub in the Thames Estuary or elsewhere, sets out the cataclysmic impact of the airport’s closure on the three boroughs, risking some 70,000 jobs.
The ‘catalytic’ impacts (employment from attraction, retention or economic activity attributable to Heathrow’s international connectivity) could amount to as many as 250,000 jobs across a swathe of south west London, west London and surrounding areas, and are crucial the debate about the future of Heathrow.
Slough YMCA workers appear in TV investigation into Romanian community
A BBC Panorama programme has been praised by Slough YMCA workers who appeared in it. Called The Romanians are Coming, it saw reporter Paul Kenyon investigate fears over Romanians and Bulgarians gaining full employment rights in the UK from January 1. Chief executive of Slough YMCA, Colin Young, was interviewed on the show and asked about his experience of working with the Roma community living in the town.
Stray Dogs in Slough
Council stray dog officers found 172 dogs in 2012/13, compared with 144 in 2009/10.
The number unclaimed by their owners each year rose from 57 to 115 in the same period. The figures for 2013/14 are likely to rise further as 152 dogs have already been collected since April, 84 of which were unclaimed.
Number of stray dogs in