Forum Topic

Fact check?

flyer from Wandsworth Conservatives claims council spending is out of control - the claims:Amount borrowed £916mDebt servicing costs £966mTotal borrowing £1.9bnTaken from reserves £152mDebt cost per household £12'8002024/25 shortfall £11many truth to these stats?

Adam Tripp ● 16d7 Comments

I haven't looked into the figures mentioned but as said in previous topics I'm still waiting for an appropriate response for my invoice breakdown. Complaint raised, upheld but still no answer to the question as to what exactly am I paying for.I only mentioned this because if relatively simple queries are not answered effectively then the costs of eventually (I hope) answering them becomes expensive.Also mentioned before and in the answers above is the feeling that WBC have taken their eye off the ball and seem unresponsive.What I do not want is WBC propaganda thru the letter box, be it from Conservatives or Labour under the disguise of council news.Back to the topic: Debt servicing costs does look high.I think the move away from very low interest rates have caught local and national governments with some very large interest payments not forgetting those with mortgages

Ed Robinson ● 16d

Yes Barbara I read that too. Also read the Power networks comment that spoke of the mains cable being hit.The lady from the estate who uIs quoted is well known for making 2 plus 2 equal 5.Maybe best wait for the official full report to come out.My memories of the Lennox Estate are not of a  Estate that lacked investment. The Ciuncil properties having been rewindowed about 12 years ago.Residents do sometimes confuse under investment with not getting what they feel the estate should have..

Andy Pike ● 16d

Well I already read somewhere else the people had already rang about the smell of gas and nothing was done.

Barbara Stevens ● 16d

It seems odd that hitting a high voltage cable when fitting fencing should cause explosions in gas boilers that presumably weren't adjacent ti the incident? I can think of at least one occasion when I've been working on an IT system within an industrial estate when a developer has dug though a cable. Very annoying,  causing downtime, but nothing catastrophic like that. There would seem to be some other problem?

Michael Ixer ● 16d

From the responses of the power networks published so far it seems the initial explosion was caused by a contractor erecting a fence for a freeholder hit the high voltage mains cable which appears to have triggered the 3 boiler explosions in  Burke close.Although 2 of the properties were adjacent it seems unclear how the third ( further down the terrace was triggered)

Andy Pike ● 16d

I wonder ( dont know) if the leak was actually in a freehold house ( non council,) and what caused it.

Andy Pike ● 16d

Wandsworth Council front page of the Forum, Gas leak Burke Close, Lennox Estate, Priory Lane. After numerous calls to the Council 3 houses ended up blowing up. I think staff are not like years ago, when the men who helped were gentlemen, now with everything you just get fobbed off.

Barbara Stevens ● 16d