Why am I subsidising families’ rubbish collection?

SINGLE people are subsidising the cost of rubbish collections for large families, according to a pensioner who wants to see the system changed.

The majority of island parishes calculate the refuse rate against TRP, which is worked out by the size of a home. However, the number of people in a house is not taken into account.

John Marshall, 77 , said he has had enough.

‘It is the unfairness of it that gets me,’ he said.

‘I’m basically subsiding people with larger families in smaller houses. It’s totally unfair.’ ( from gep)

what is fair ?

is it fair that he gets an OAP full rate of say £150 a week but probably paid a pittance in contributions when he was at work, as little as a few pence when he was younger i bet.

I pay £120 a week and have done for a few years and maybe more in the future, is my pension going to equivalent to his based on what he paid in and what i would of have paid in ?

boubt it.... will be lucky to get one at all..

Are you for real , a few pence as you say was relative on what he got paid then , why should he subsidise large families when he probably puts out a sack once in a while and others put out at least 2 a week .

maybe his taxes shouldn't pay for schools or roads either.

digger

of cource im for real, wouldnt of said if didnt mean it..

like spirit said what about other taxes and other peeps, should childless couples pay less tax ? should OAP's get cheaper bus fares subsidised by the taxpayer ? what about someone who s***s 3 to 4 times a day, should they pay more tax than someone who s***s a few time a week..

Good points raised all round. The only 'fair' way to calculate government and local taxes is a 'user pays' system... but can you imagine how complex that would be? An already bloated civil service would expand out of all proportion.
I can think of quite a few additions to The Gimp's list:
Would pacifists have to pay for the military?
Would criminals and victims only pay for the police?
Would litterbugs pay more than those of us who use bins? ... etc.
One thing that does bug me in this area is the provision of free breakfasts for all schoolkids. I can understand it if the child is from a poor family, but many have both parents working, earning far more than yours truly. While I have to peruse the mark-down sections of the supermarket, thanks to the huge chunk of my salary that goes in income tax and council tax, these relatively well-off couples have more beer money in their pockets. It's parents' responsibility to feed their offspring, not the taxpayer.

The rubbish subject has also been raised on, dare I say it, "Why Not Guernsey".
There is a way that the douzaines can charge a person on the amount of rubbish that they put out and it also assists recycling. That is by having douzaine approved black bags that are the only ones accepted by the bin men. A bag would cost between 1 and 2 pounds bought at a local supermarket.
That way you would only pay for the rubbish you put out. You would start to separate bottles and plastics which you can dispose of for free by either road side collections or at the bottle bank.
A household of 2 would use 1 bag per fortnight.

Good argument .tagging bags ,but it would not work as folks can by other bags and leave them out .most don't give a toss if they are collected ,it would mean a huge amount of rubbish uncollected in the island mostly in flat land in St Peter port.

You have missed the point Gimp , say the pension is £150 pw how can he possibly pay all these extra charges , i pay £160 pw for a room , it just don't add up . I would like to see some people who think life is all black and white try to survive on a pittance .Real people in the real world .

Im not saying its easy, im saying the whole system isnt fair and never will be, what i was getting at about the pension is that if i continue to pay £120 until i retire ( 67 at the mo ) my contributions will be a total of £174,720 ! and that doesnt include what ive paid since i started work !! ( 27 years ago )

Am i going to get that back ? do i get a bigger pension than someone who's been on benifits most of their life or cant be bothered to work, or spent half their life in nick ?

im all for a pay for what you use, as long as you get back what you pay in....

if you are paying a £120 a week in social insurance stamps you must be earning one hell of a wage ....i put one bin out a week for two of us should i get a reduction too.maybe we should all claim reductions on the trips to recycle bins with reusables ...

im self employed and work very very hard..

and your point is ?

just making the point that your income far outweighs that of a pensioner on basic state pension x

thats not the point here is it ?

the point being made is that this guy feels hes subsidising others !!

thats how the system works im affraid, some subsidise alot more than others, while some are just a burden on the system... life isnt fair im affraid ;-)

kat wrote:Good argument .tagging bags ,but it would not work as folks can by other bags and leave them out .most don't give a toss if they are collected ,it would mean a huge amount of rubbish uncollected in the island mostly in flat land in St Peter port.

Then you sift through the illegal bags, get evidence and prosecute with big fines, most are law abiding and will recognise the benefits, the others will tow the line after some nudging.

So how do you find evidence in a bag that just contains bottles?
i come across so many sacks of rubbish as folks do not always put letter containing their address in .
if it was that easy many would have been already prosecuted.

maybe the police could run a island wide DNA and fingerprint screaning of everyone in the island at a cost of millions, oh i dont know, should we get some english consultants in ?

If bags did cost up to £2 each, but normal ones costing £2 for 20/30 or so, how long before Mr Marshall was spending more on sacks than his refuse collection in his rates ?

if mr marshall is only putting out one bag a month at £2 a bag he would be quids in even if he bought an extra couple of bags just in case he needed them

Why not just scrap all State funded services and buy everything yourselves ? And you all thought Maggie Thatcher was selfish.

Does he put out 1 bag a month?
Do we know anything else about this guy ?

Does he own his own house or is he housed by the taxpayer ? whom pay to maintain and upgrade the house / flat he occupies ?

TBH i think this whole topic is pathetic.. your probably find the ones that moan the most are often the ones getting the most out of the states...and putting the least in...

Quote: "you probably find the ones that moan the most are the ones that are getting the most out from the states..."
Very true... probably getting the most out and putting the least in.
I've been looking at the readers' comments to the article on 'ThisIsGuernsey'. A couple of memorable ones stated that "it's part of being a community" and "he's occupying a house that could be used by more people" (i.e. he should let a family have it or rent out rooms). Sort of smacks of Soviet-style socialism... the state telling you what you're entitled to according to your status, in this case whether you're single or have a family. Sorry, motorists... I guess that means that single folks drive a SmartCar while families are allowed BMW minivans.