£3 million in council cash boosts for local groups (From Watford Observer)

Largely, probably, a waste of taxpayers money.

Why is one football club worthy, while another is not?

Local bribery allowance, more like.

Here is an idea, why not take as much tax from hard working people, this will allow them to have a wee bit of exposable to spend within the communites?

This shows that too much cash is sucked out as source than is rather needed..

So easy to give away other people's money. If there is money to give away give it back to the people whose money it is ...us the taxpayer....as one I could use it so stop giving my money away!!!!

Why can’t they spend this money on keeping the street lights on throughout the night? I for one would prefer the lights staying on rather than allowing Councillors a pot of money to spend arbitrarily on pet projects.

The money the Council say that will be saved by turning our lights out is similar to the amount spent on the locality budget (£770.000 a year)

Who was consulted on the lighting turnoff?

I sent the email below to the editorial team at WO on the 17th January. It was unpublished.

"Dear Sir,

In a local free periodical this week I noticed two articles informing me that LibDem county councillors Derek Scudder and Kareen Hastrick have made donations to local causes. Initially I thought this was very generous of them. On reading the articles it became clear that in each case the headline was misleading.

In both examples the councillors were actually donating my money (and yours). Each county councillor is given an annual "locality budget" of £10,000, to dispense, it would appear, as they see fit. All 77 county councillors are given this funding. By my maths that's the best part of £800,000 a year going to what can only be thought of as a form of patronage system.

I don't recall being asked if my taxes could be given to local clubs and charities and so forth on the whim of a county councillor. However I do remember being told that - to save money - street lights were being turned off at night across the county. It's nice to see priorities are being addressed at County Hall. Hopefully I can read about "locality budgets" in the next issue of the county council magazine, seemingly distributed to every household in the county, wanted or not, at Lord knows what cost.

What rankles is that these stories of councillors "donating" my money come just a few months before the county council elections in May. Whatever else one thinks of the LibDems one cannot but admire their ruthless appetite for self-publicity. As we approach the May elections we can no doubt look forward to seeing many more stories of generous councillors (Tory and Labour included) dispensing favours to their electorate.

Tammany Hall, alive in well in 2013."

Nick Lincoln
Chairman, UKIP Watford

I think some people are missing the point, this money (if given to the right group) can and im sure does have a big impact on local communities.

Someone asks why should a football club get money seeing it as a negatvie thing. I see it as money being given that will get kids active, give them something to do, help prevent them being a menance in their local community and so on which not only benefits the individuals involved but communities as a whole

garston tony wrote:
I think some people are missing the point, this money (if given to the right group) can and im sure does have a big impact on local communities.

Someone asks why should a football club get money seeing it as a negatvie thing. I see it as money being given that will get kids active, give them something to do, help prevent them being a menance in their local community and so on which not only benefits the individuals involved but communities as a whole

The council is only giving back to the community what is ours - our money! It doesn't come from a benevolent and bottomless well. They tax us and then give the money away ("donations") to other people.

If we weren't so heavily taxed then more people would gladly donate more directly to local clubs, charities, causes etc. They would certainly be more minded to do so if they knew the State wasn't going to do it for them indiscriminately!

"if given to the right group" - who are the council to say is the right group for my money. It's my say, surely? It's my money.

There is an implicit quid pro quo in these arrangements ("here's some dosh, get us in the local papers..."). This, to use modern parlance, sucks.