Browse content similar to 16/02/2017. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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Hello, good evening. his administration. | :00:15. | :00:15. | |
Councillors in Devon and Dorset have tonight become the latest to approve | :00:16. | :00:18. | |
It follows Somerset council's decision to increase bills | :00:19. | :00:22. | |
The other local authorities in our region are expected | :00:23. | :00:25. | |
to make similar increases within the next few weeks. | :00:26. | :00:28. | |
More from our political reporter, Anna Varle. | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
Many of us have seen small increases in council tax over the last few | :00:34. | :00:36. | |
years to pay for things like bin collections, | :00:37. | :00:39. | |
highways, street and fire, but this year you might notice | :00:40. | :00:50. | |
a change in your bill because of social care. | :00:51. | :00:52. | |
Let's go into the kitchen, make you a cup of tea. | :00:53. | :00:55. | |
A task many of us take for granted but | :00:56. | :00:57. | |
Joyce has just returned home from hospital and needs help to get back | :00:58. | :01:00. | |
This support has a cost, which is why local | :01:01. | :01:10. | |
authorities are looking at charging council taxpayers more. | :01:11. | :01:24. | |
Once you've had carers in, if you don't know | :01:25. | :01:26. | |
fancy putting their council tax up, but when you know the things that | :01:27. | :01:31. | |
you do and the money goes towards, you don't mind so much. | :01:32. | :01:34. | |
Protests took place in Somerset yesterday as | :01:35. | :01:36. | |
councillors set the biggest rise in more | :01:37. | :01:38. | |
than a decade and today it was | :01:39. | :01:39. | |
Today Devon County Council decided to increase | :01:40. | :01:42. | |
2% of that will go on bins, police, fire, 3% will | :01:43. | :01:54. | |
go on social care for the likes of Joyce. | :01:55. | :01:56. | |
Those in a band D property will pay around ?60 more a year. | :01:57. | :02:05. | |
We have to put in a large amount of money to look after people. | :02:06. | :02:11. | |
It's going through, ?19 million, ?2 million for children's services. | :02:12. | :02:17. | |
Similar increases are expected across the rest of the region in the | :02:18. | :02:20. | |
I think largely people can afford it and social care | :02:21. | :02:32. | |
service which is the point of | :02:33. | :02:39. | |
need, social care which is means tested. | :02:40. | :02:41. | |
I haven't any objection to them putting our council tax up. | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
We will find the money and I believe it | :02:46. | :02:47. | |
But despite the rise in council tax, local authorities | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
like Devon are still having to make ?23 million in cuts to social | :02:53. | :02:55. | |
Our political editor is with us. These latest rises more evidence of | :02:56. | :03:16. | |
the strain on local councils? Yes, that strain would go away, even | :03:17. | :03:21. | |
with these rises and millions of pounds of cuts. A big gripe as | :03:22. | :03:26. | |
always is the amount of grant that central government is paying to | :03:27. | :03:29. | |
local councils. Just before Christmas when the provisional | :03:30. | :03:33. | |
settlement was announced, as in previous years, there was a lot of | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
criticism from MPs and councils in rural areas like ours saying the | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
amount the government was offering was unfair and simply not | :03:42. | :03:55. | |
sufficient to meet their needs. We are in a slightly strange situation | :03:56. | :03:59. | |
this year where most of the main councils in the region set their | :04:00. | :04:01. | |
budgets before they hear what the final offer from the government will | :04:02. | :04:04. | |
be because it has to be announced and voted on in Westminster next | :04:05. | :04:07. | |
week so we are in a situation where if the government comes out with a | :04:08. | :04:09. | |
lot more money next week these budgets will be set and the Council | :04:10. | :04:12. | |
bills will be set and I gather the government is getting the blame for | :04:13. | :04:15. | |
that as well because it is so late because of all the Brexit | :04:16. | :04:17. | |
negotiations and the councils have to get their budgets set by law by | :04:18. | :04:21. | |
the beginning of March. If the government doesn't come up | :04:22. | :04:24. | |
with any more money, are there any obvious options for local councils? | :04:25. | :04:31. | |
This is worsening situation and it tends to hit smaller councils | :04:32. | :04:34. | |
of Scilly at the moment is battling of Scilly at the moment is battling | :04:35. | :04:41. | |
big black holes its budget. Small rural District Council is really | :04:42. | :04:44. | |
tend to suffer with all of this as well. Looking around the country a | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
number of rural counties including Dorset here in the south-west are | :04:50. | :04:53. | |
looking at following Cornwall and abolishing district councils and | :04:54. | :04:59. | |
unitary is as well -- instead. If Dorsey gets the go-ahead if you look | :05:00. | :05:03. | |
at the whole of the South West from Gloucestershire done Medvedev | :05:04. | :05:05. | |
announced Somerset would only -- be the only authority is sticking to | :05:06. | :05:12. | |
the traditional structure. Devon and Somerset might then come under | :05:13. | :05:15. | |
pressure to do the same thing for financial reasons. Thank you. | :05:16. | :05:19. | |
Meanwhile the Isles of Scilly Council is having | :05:20. | :05:21. | |
to decide how much money to save after a major overspend. | :05:22. | :05:24. | |
Although the islands are just off Cornwall they're independent | :05:25. | :05:26. | |
from Cornwall Council and are responsible | :05:27. | :05:27. | |
for their own finances, as Nick Quraishi explains. | :05:28. | :05:34. | |
It describes itself as the smallest unitary authority in England, with | :05:35. | :05:42. | |
the biggest bream it. In charge of a school, an airport, a residential | :05:43. | :05:48. | |
care home and water supplies. Set up in 1890 the Council for Scilly | :05:49. | :05:54. | |
provides services for 2300 islanders with 21 councillors and two more -- | :05:55. | :06:00. | |
117 full-time employees so it is the island 's largest employer. Its | :06:01. | :06:05. | |
because it overspent. The council 's because it overspent. The council 's | :06:06. | :06:09. | |
general reserve fund, or savings account, stands at ?500,000, half of | :06:10. | :06:16. | |
what was expected. This coming year money will be cut from budgets, with | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
potential for more. Among the biggest savings is ?200,000 for | :06:22. | :06:27. | |
making waste disposal more efficient. Almost 50,000 imposing | :06:28. | :06:32. | |
fortnightly winter bin collections and scaling down on street sweeping. | :06:33. | :06:37. | |
It will drop the money it pays to the tourist information centre and | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
take ?5,000 from a health scheme that led a counsellor to walk out of | :06:42. | :06:50. | |
a recent meeting. The final budget for last year will be set on the 7th | :06:51. | :06:52. | |
of March. A controversial car park pay machine | :06:53. | :07:01. | |
has been replaced at a location used in the Poldark TV series | :07:02. | :07:04. | |
in Cornwall, after the original was deliberately pulled | :07:05. | :07:06. | |
out of the ground. There are calls for the National | :07:07. | :07:08. | |
Trust not to enforce parking charges at Levant Mine because it's the site | :07:09. | :07:11. | |
of one of the area's worst mining disasters, | :07:12. | :07:14. | |
as Hannah Stacey reports. The underground workings of Levant | :07:15. | :07:16. | |
mine extend more than a mile Generations of men sought copper | :07:17. | :07:18. | |
and tin here but the Levant mine disaster in October 1919 was one | :07:19. | :07:22. | |
of the biggest losses of life 31 men were killed when the device | :07:23. | :07:26. | |
to carry them down the shaft failed. Scenes from the first series | :07:27. | :07:33. | |
of Poldark were filmed here. For now, they have enough copper | :07:34. | :07:43. | |
to cope and come the next auction... We will see they come | :07:44. | :07:47. | |
away empty-handed. There has been a 50% | :07:48. | :07:48. | |
increase in visitor That means the footfall | :07:49. | :07:50. | |
has increased here. 70% of those people don't go | :07:51. | :07:56. | |
into the site itself but walk in the local landscape | :07:57. | :08:00. | |
which we also look after. So that increases the maintenance | :08:01. | :08:02. | |
liability and we have an conservation work we need to do | :08:03. | :08:06. | |
to keep the space special. So to pay for it they have put | :08:07. | :08:10. | |
in a parking machine, It will cost us money to replace us, | :08:11. | :08:13. | |
it has already cost us money to replace and that is money | :08:14. | :08:18. | |
we could have used for conservation work, so it is sad there has | :08:19. | :08:21. | |
been that vandalism. Opponents say they don't | :08:22. | :08:25. | |
condone the vandalism but still want to get this machine | :08:26. | :08:27. | |
moved legally and permanently. They make a point about protecting | :08:28. | :08:34. | |
the environment but I would hardly call sticking that parking meter | :08:35. | :08:37. | |
here protecting the environment, and how did they manage | :08:38. | :08:42. | |
for all these decades I suppose it's people like us that | :08:43. | :08:44. | |
are attracted to this place because of Poldark and we have | :08:45. | :08:50. | |
to pay for the upkeep of it. My grandfather was Tom Rowe | :08:51. | :08:55. | |
and he died in the Levant mine disaster but I still think | :08:56. | :08:59. | |
the National Trust need to charge to park here because it's becoming | :09:00. | :09:02. | |
increasingly popular with Poldark. They need money to maintain | :09:03. | :09:08. | |
the roads and the access in and out. With the 100th anniversary | :09:09. | :09:13. | |
of the Levant mine disaster approaching, the National Trust says | :09:14. | :09:16. | |
descendents of the men killed will still be able to come | :09:17. | :09:20. | |
here and park for free. Now with the weather forecast, here | :09:21. | :09:37. | |
is Holly. Thank you. We had a very nice day | :09:38. | :09:42. | |
today in many respects and that led to a nice evening and I have been | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
spoilt for choice with my lovely photos that have been coming in. | :09:47. | :09:53. | |
This one is viewed earlier on today. Tomorrow it will unfortunately be | :09:54. | :09:58. | |
cloudier and we have the risk of showery rain later as well. High | :09:59. | :10:03. | |
pressure has been in charge and it stays in charge in the coming days | :10:04. | :10:07. | |
but weather fronts will try to push in. They weaken but bring more cloud | :10:08. | :10:11. | |
than perhaps a bit of rain, I suspect mostly dry over the coming | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
days. This evening and overnight then we might see mist and fog | :10:16. | :10:20. | |
patches and low cloud rolling in. If we get clear spells a touch of frost | :10:21. | :10:25. | |
is possible but most of us will be generally frost free tomorrow. Early | :10:26. | :10:29. | |
mist and fog and quite a lot of cloud spilling in which we'll cope | :10:30. | :10:33. | |
to the moors as well. Hill fog around. Later today the risk of | :10:34. | :10:37. | |
showery rain but not too much and a brisk wind to the West. Temperatures | :10:38. | :10:42. | |
will get into double figures. Cloudy in the coming days and it is dry. | :10:43. | :10:48. | |
Where you get some sunshine it should feel reasonably nice. | :10:49. | :10:54. | |
Thank you. That is all from us. Our next update is just before 6:30am. | :10:55. | :10:57. | |
From us, good night. of 11. Not too bad for the | :10:58. | :11:01. | |
forthcoming weekend. Here is Nick Miller with a resume of the National | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
weather picture. Hello, rain for some of us today | :11:08. | :11:11. | |
although it won't make much of | :11:12. | :11:12. |