Refreshing to see the opinion of a fresh eye on the bus service. It is probably even better than you have observed Chris. Smaller buses go on the estates picking people up vertually from their front doors. We tend to moan about the things we take for granted, me included. It may not be perfect but I think we should recognise the fact we have an excellent bus service.
I've no gripes with the buses either. Don't use them a lot but find the Avon buses OK and a great price in the evening. Same with the little one that runs from Oxton to New Brighton.
New powers : The directly elected Mayor for Liverpool City Region Combined Authority will autonomously exercise new powers. The LCR Mayor will chair the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority.
Through devolution the region will also get £220.9 million from European funding. Just wondering how much will come to Wirral, apart fro the possible reductions in tunnel fees.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
What was the amount of collective reserves kept in the banks by the councils. Wirral £125m, Liverpool £250m, (or was, during the period mentioned. 2010 to 2014) Won't be now because they have had to use it instead of sitting on it. Shame! It was your money and every other council tax payers money.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
Only about a quarter of those reserves are "free" reserves, the rest are earmarked. Note that "earmarked reserves" and "unusable reserves" are different.
The total usable reserves represent about 5% of the budget, running less than 5% would create a risk that would be unsupportable (just consider how many departments could over-spend compared to how many are likely to under-spend).
Digging into reserves is never a solution, what happens when the reserves run out?
Although I can't find the exact figure, I'm sure the council has a net debt, especially if you subtract their non-realisable assets from the equation (eg council buildings).
From what I can see, the council has a net debt of around £500m if you take property out the equation.
We don't do charity in Germany, we pay taxes. Charity is a failure of governments' responsibilities - Henning Wehn
The shape of things to come......all I can think is that Liverpool is likely to become the drug smuggling hub of Europe. Cargoes coming from Equador, Columbia, etc. is going to have a massive impact, and particularly on the transportation, which I don't believe is anywhere near suitable to carry the tonnage out of Liverpool. They had a whole new dual carriageway built for the Felixstowe cargo, even that ended up congested.
Last edited by granny; 22nd Dec 201512:51am.
Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect. ~Chief Seattle
