Hi there, My auntie swapped her rotted old wodden windows with double galzing a while back. She hired a window installer (WI) to take tackle the problem, which would finally cost her £6000 pounds. At the time the WI explained that the area was not conservation, not to worry and that he would not need any form of approval from the council to perform the job. She took this person word on everything and went ahead with the work. After about a year the council contacted her and stated that infact it was a conservation area and that she would need to replace the windows to suit. This is now going to cost her £12,000. They gave her 3 years to do this and she now has 6 months. Is theyre something she can do..... She knows where this WI is and he is easily contactable. Can she sue? Is they're a way the council can do this job where it doesnt cost a whopping 12 grand in one hit? Appreciate the advice. Thanks

Does anyone know if there is a "statute of limitations" regarding retroactive action by a Local Authority (LA) please? As far as I am aware, I have contravened no bylaw. My LA have recently advised that they are about to commence repairs to the footway and what they call crossovers - to you and me that's the drive linking your front garden to the road. It would appear that approximately 40 residents have been asked to either replace the fence/wall to their front garden(usually removed to facilitate offstreet parking) or pay for an extension to the aforementioned crossover - c. £500 and upwards! The other alternative is for the LA to place a 6 inch square post in the pavement in front of the house, thereby restricting access to one car only. In my case, the LA have agreed that no damage has been caused to either the crossover, the pavement or the adjacent grass verge despite removal of the garden wall. The wall was removed approximately 20 years ago and the garden subsequently re-designed about 14 years ago. To get to the point, can the LA force me to put the wall back up after such a long time and is their action legal?

Hi all! Not many people use their local butchers any longer, I never used to till I learned a few horrible facts about how bad commercially produced meat is for us, how bad the animals are treated, and how they are pumped with hormones and all sorts of medications because they become so sick living in the terrible conditions and environment they're raised in, which we then eat! So I just wanted to give an example of a comparison for what I bought today from my local dales butchers who only sell local produce of which all is organically fed, outdoor reared, and free range. 4x free range organic duck breasts (which by the way are twice the weight of Sainsburys) £11 1x 1.8kg free range organic chicken £5.18 1x 1.5kg organic boneless lamb shoulder £11 Total: £25.18 If I'd have gone to Sainsburys and bought the same: 4x duck breasts £11.24 (although these are on half price offer, so should be £22.48, and are half the size/weight) 1x 1.75kg free range chicken £10.53 1x 1.45kg shoulder of lamb with bone £10.86 Total cost: £43.87 - but minus the rare offer on the duck breast, would be today £33.59,which is more even though there's a half price offer on the duck breasts, and not forgetting the duck breasts are tiny compared to the butchers. Also, did you know that chicken is usually high in omega3 oils, but ONLY if the chickens are free range, also chickens that are free range have only a fraction of the fat content of those chickens that are not. Those cheap "3 for a tenner" etc you buy from the supermarket have zero omega3 oil content, and they fat content is unbelievable! Free range organic meat is so expensive from the supermarket, but it's not when you use your local butcher, in fact it works out cheaper from your local butcher to buy free range than it does for none free range commercially produced meat from the supermarkets! Treat yourself to good wholesome meat, that you know has had a good life, and has been fed properly without all the drugs and misery the supermarket regular meats have endured, at less than the price! Trust me, you will never have tasted anything like it, nothing compares! I now know why people say this thing and that thing "tastes like chicken", because the cheap "3 for a tenner" etc from the supermarket don't taste of real chicken, in fact they're tasteless by comparison, if you were to get a free range organic one from a butchers, you would be able to tell, and will actually know what proper chicken tastes like! Just the chickens bone alone is stronger, you can tell they've been good strong, well fed birds that have had a good life, in comparison to the weak sickly ones who live crammed in a barn, with nothing else to do other than eat and crap on eat other! If we all did this, supermarkets would have no choice but to lower the price of free range, outdoor reared organic meat produce - thus putting a stop to the commercially reared meat produce, that not only is not good for us, but also is a terrible life for the animals that end up on our plates!

Today, the Local Government Ombudsman ( Dr Jane Martin) released to the public a copy of her report into Blaby Council. The Press release issued on their website today is as follows: Blaby Council did not exercise proper control over bailiffs it employed to collect council tax debts, finds Local Government Ombudsman, Dr Jane Martin. In her report, issued today, she says: “I am issuing this report in the public interest because the practice of bailiffs’ ‘double charging’ for visits is not uncommon. These bailiffs were acting on behalf of the Council and it was within the Council’s control to contractually curb excessive charges by the bailiffs. I would expect local authorities and their agents to consider the reasonableness of their practice in this area in future and I am pleased that this Council has now done so.” She adds: “The Council has an obligation to collect council tax and to pursue people who do not pay. Mrs S has not paid her council tax for some considerable time. She also failed to honour the payment arrangements made to clear the debt. So the Council was entitled to take enforcement action against her, including instructing bailiffs. But the Council should ensure that the bailiffs who act on its behalf comply with the relevant regulations and that debtors are charged only sums which are properly due. It is clear this did not happen in Mrs S’s case.” Mrs S owed arrears of council tax. She complained that bailiffs employed by the Council to collect her council tax arrears had not acted within the law and had overcharged her. She also complained that the Council failed to properly answer her queries and complaints about these issues, including a serious allegation that four bailiffs tried to break into Mrs S’s property and obtained money from her partner by clamping and taking occupation of a car that was not his. The Ombudsman’s investigation found that the Council failed to exercise proper control over the actions of its bailiffs and the fees it charged. The bailiffs had charged eight visit fees (because Mrs S had arrears for eight years: ie there were eight accounts) on two occasions for one visit by one bailiff, and failed to carry out DVLA checks on the ownership of the vehicles. The Council also failed to properly investigate Mrs S’s complaints until she complained to the Ombudsman. These faults caused Mrs S stress and anxiety, and she had to take significant time and trouble in pursuing her complaints with the Council and the bailiffs. Once the Ombudsman became involved the Council: reduced the fees charged by £630.50 carried out DVLA checks on the vehicles, which showed they did not belong either to Mrs S or her partner, so removed the remaining levies and associated fees, and negotiated a new contract with its bailiffs only allowing one fee to be charged for one visit even where multiple accounts are involved. The Ombudsman finds maladministration causing injustice, and is pleased that the Council has agreed to pay £300 to Mrs S for the distress and inconvenience she was caused, which it will offset against the outstanding council tax arrears. The Ombudsman has urged Mrs S to enter into a reliable regular payment arrangement with the Council to avoid future action, such as an attachment of earnings either through her or her partner

Can someone tell me whether a claimant of housing benefit and/or council tax benefit has to declare when asked by the local council paying this what they have spent their money on? My cousin claims these benefits and was recently asked to produce bank statements which she did. Now her local council have asked her about various outgoings and incomings. She told them what she spent her money on was none of their business. She can understand them asking about the incomings which were only transfers from one bank account to another but the outcomings is a different matter. Or is it? Thank you in anticipation.

Ok peeps i need a bit of help here , i am trying to find out where my tax office is. I live in scotland in Falkirk but have been told my payment centre for return to work credit is Cardiff. So do i use cardiff as my tax office? I have registered online self employed but have not heard anything as yet from HMRC.

The short story is that the head of recovery for council tax for my LA agreed verbally face to face with me at their office that the monthly payments we have been making to cover our arrears could carry on at the agreed rate until the arrears were paid off while paying on top for this years tax. We missed a payment from this years tax through my wife's student loan being late, and as such we have been taken to court for both this years tax adding £100 for the privilege, but also took me to court for the outstanding debt, although I hadn't missed any payments on that, and yes you've guessed it, added another £100 for my troubles,although the debt had been to court already, and they added £100 then. I have since spoke to my LA, and they deny that any deal was made,I have been paying off my arrears for 3 years, and there is nothing can be done. Is it worth asking for a SAR to help my case by proving a deal had been made RE; original arrears ? Any advice most welcome Thank You.

Hello everyone, I will try and keep this fairly brief, I would be interested to hear people constructive views on these issues I have had at work, some are actually things that I was totally unaware of that came back to stab me in the back six months later as no one had pointed it out at the time! I have worked in Local Govt (LG) for 25 years, after 21 years we had a restructure, as lots of places do, this was the first one they had ever had. My team was being totally abolished but we applied for jobs as the waives came in, we all were successful, 2 people left as they were almost at retirement age so it all worked out ok. I however, happy in my new job, skills were correctly matched etc, then after 2 years redundancy came, 2 people in my team went voluntarily which made me and my other colleague safe. Then after another year our section were told we were merging with another department, a very operational department and not in the Town Hall Building, it was half a mile down the road, this is ok. We moved and I was put into a team of people where the job for me was not a job match, but hey, I adapted and was ok. Sadly I had a death in my family of a very close person, I dealt with that on my own with no help from anyone, work became awful, I hated the job, I felt i was being singled out, people were definitely different with me. I was also at risk of redundancy for over a year, however when I asked for redundancy my Head of Service said no. I was off with stress, the doctor took one look at me and knew, I couldnt even hold a cup straight, in total I was signed off twice, 2 lots of 4 weeks. I went back and people were ok with me, things started getting better, then we had wind of another change so I asked if redundancy could be an option for me but I was told no. My service head then spoke to me offering me this agreement where he would offer 3 months salary, I said i couldnt possibly leave on that but why did he want me to leave. His response was they knew I had applied for internal jobs so assumed that I was unhappy, he even tried to say I had made mistakes, i asked him to tell me what they were and they were petty things that people do every day and I have seen far worse errors that other colleagues have made that I have put right for them but stupidly I didnt tell him that. My other boss then said they could probably stretch to more than 3 months if I wanted to go but said they were not trying to push me out. I said if i did, the most i could possibly afford would be 9 - 10 months given the state of the job situation outside and the fact I have a mortgage and a huge loan. They came back to me with the offer of 10k which is nice and I was very thankful but I had to turn it down as during that time I had a new contract which meant I was at last not at risk. I let my brain do the talking and not my heart and I am now staying. However since getting our contracts, the few people in my team seem a lot more relaxed and i feel different too and would like to give it a go. The sad thing is I have been given this reputation of not putting my best into my work because of applying for internal jobs and being off sick, which I reiterate has been certified. Also I had a written warning for being off sick, even though my Doctor signed me off and they have included the stress and anxiety caused by work in this category of amounts of time off sick within 12 months. My service head also took a duty off me which was a health and safety coordinator role so I now have no chance of promotion, his reasons were because he felt I couldnt perform in my new contact centre role (which is something I would never apply to do, I was put into it), I also bumped into someone from our HR section and she was horrified that the last 2 jobs I applied for I had had no feedback as to why they didnt interview me. While I was in the meeting with my service head and managter about this compromised agreement thing, my service head asked how many interviews I had had for all the jobs I applied for, I said all of them except the last two and he said it was because I was seen to be applying for many jobs in a desperate attempt to get out of this department I was in. This is to a degree true, yes I did and still would like to get back into the Town Hall and not be stuck in an operational unit with people and culture different from me, I am used to getting dressed up for work, not swearing and laughing out loud and people not taking in what I am trying to explain. When I was in the town hall, people would let you explain without joking around and they take their work more seriously. Where I am at the moment, they make out they are messing around all the time yet then stab you in the back for supposedly making errors. By the way, I never was told what these errors were. Sorry this is long, if you havent fallen asleep yet I would be interested in hearing what people make of this. The compliments I get are from members of the public who call in and ask for me or thank me for what i have done but I only hear that if I speak to them, if it goes to a colleague, I dont hear about it neither does management. If someone calls in and praises our refuse collectors, I make sure they and the manager know! D x